


Patrol Is Better With You (LadyNoir July)

by steampunkcircus



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Angst, Antarctica, Consensual Memory Modification, F/M, Fake Dating, LadyNoir - Freeform, Ladynoir July, Non-Consensual Memory Modification, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Panic Attack, akumatization of a main character, brief scene in a hospital, but it's ok i was one many years ago, but seriously nothing medical really goes on, butterfly!felix, gross ice cream flavors, horrifyingly bad knock knock jokes, july is for tropes, lame card tricks, mild teasing of homeschooled people, peacock!bridgette, yes I went there
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-01
Updated: 2018-07-31
Packaged: 2019-05-31 20:09:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 31
Words: 46,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15126941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/steampunkcircus/pseuds/steampunkcircus
Summary: Starts off as a bunch of LadyNoir drabbles and oneshots for LadyNoir July. Developed a plot a few chapters in. Fake dating, memory modification, falling in love, and fighting bad guys. Just two supers being super and falling in love.





	1. Crazy (First Impressions)

"I'm so glad you're crazy."

It was an off-hand comment, and Chat Noir probably didn't even realize he'd said it. Ladybug had just saved a kid from falling from an apartment complex balcony by picking Chat Noir up and throwing him to intercept the kid in mid air. That had been her first idea, and the one with which she had followed through. After returning the kid to his parents and informing them that their kid had gotten on the balcony in the first place, the pair had continued their patrol, which was when Chat Noir had made his comment.

"What do you mean?" Ladybug asked. "That wasn't so odd a way to save the kid. My yoyo would have yanked him and hurt. If we'd extended your staff, the kid might not have grabbed on properly. I didn't have time to swing that far. And it worked. What's so crazy about that?"

"It's a good thing, Ladybug," he said. "Crazy awesome. You're the right bug for the job because you can think of all those things at once and make the right call."

"How is that crazy then?" She pulled him to a stop on a rooftop with a hand around his wrist.

"Because you must be to come up with stuff like that!"

She didn't want him to think his words hurt her, so she just nodded and pulled back her arm to throw her yoyo.

"Hey," he said, putting his hand over hers where it was raised and clutching her yoyo. "It was one of my first impressions of you. I thought you were a little crazy, but everything you tried, worked. I don't think you're actually crazy."

"It's fine," she said, trying to tug her hand away. He had a firm grip, and the angle was better for him with his height advantage.

"I didn't mean to hurt your feelings," he said. "First impressions aren't everything. I know I was wrong about you."

"I told you, it's fine," she said, finally pulling her hand free of his. She passed her yoyo back and forth between her hands for a moment, then looked up at him. "So you don't really think I'm crazy?"

"Creative, ingenious, brilliant, and quick-witted." He put a hand on her shoulder. "I'll choose my words better from now on," he said.

"Thank you," she said, bringing a hand up to squeeze his on her shoulder.

"Anything for you, My Lady." He turned and started walking along the roof again, his hands laced behind his head. "Besides, I'm sure you must have had some weird first impressions of me, too."

"Oh Kitty," she said, walking past him to the edge of the roof. "You have no idea what I think of you now, either."

She lined up her shot and snagged her yoyo on a chimney.

"Wait, what does that-"

She swung into the night, laughing at Chat spluttering behind her.

It would be a while before she admitted that she thought the world of him.


	2. Armor (Akuma)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ladybug and Chat Noir try to distract the city from their lack of progress in catching Hawkmoth.

"Okay, now, Timebreaker versus Dark Cupid."

"Oh, that's... kind of easy," Chat said, reaching for more popcorn. "Dark Cupid all the way."

"I agree."

"Wait, that was for Hottest, not Best Costume, right?"

"RIght," Ladybug said, marking on their giant akuma bracket. "We can switch to Best Costume if you'd rather do that one first."

"Eh, this is fine," Chat said. "Remind me again why we're doing this?"

"Press conferences are getting boring," Ladybug said. "We have no new leads on who Hawkmoth is, or even where he is. I thought introducing the city to our brackets would be a fun time waster at the next scheduled press conference."

"And a bunch of brackets like they use for basketball, used to compare akumatized villains based on characteristics like outfit, attractiveness, ridiculousness of their powers-"

"I still can't believe you said Bubbler over Mr. Pigeon."

"-is supposed to distract the city from our lack of progress on our overall goal?"

"Yes it is," Ladybug said, tracing the lines of the bracket for a moment.

"That works. What's next?"

"Darkblade versus Mime."

"Mime, easy," Chat said.

"I liked Darkblade."

"He was covered in metal armor. His hotness rating drops sharply because you can't see any of him."

"I don't know," Ladybug said. "Maybe it's the whole knight in shining armor thing."

"My Lady," Chat said, turning towards her fully. "You don't need a knight, shining armor or not. You _are_  the knight in shining... magic spotted suit."

Ladybug laughed and tossed some popcorn at Chat. "You know it."

/*****/

A few days later, a villain was chasing Chat Noir. He was flat out running, didn't have a second to spare to pull out his baton and vault away because if he stopped even for a moment, this guy with wrecking balls for arms was going to smush Chat into oblivion. He looked for an escape as he ran, trying to keep an eye on the villain behind him as he raced. He couldn't keep this up forever.

A sudden swooping feeling hit the pit of Chat's stomach and his feet left the ground. With a lurch, he came to a stop, Ladybug's one arm hooked around his waist.

"You saved me," he blurted.

"Knight in shining magic spotted suit, at your service," she said, setting him down and bowing dramatically.

"Oh, haha," Chat said.

"Hey, you called me that," she said, spinning her yoyo idly at her side. "I'm just starting to realize how much I like that description."

Chat shook his head, a smile he couldn't even try to hide on his face. "Right, I did say that. Does that make me your princess?"

"Sorry, Kitty," she said, her eyes focusing in on the construction hat on top of the akuma victim. "I just don't think you're the princess type."

She swung past the villain, making a grab for the hat but having to pull away as a wrecking ball came at her.

"Oh, I don't know," Chat said, knowing she couldn't hear him. "I do spend a lot of time locked up and wearing pretty clothes."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Talk with me over at [cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com](https://cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com/) if you like :)


	3. Chase (Lucky Charm/Cataclysm/Playful)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ladybug ate the last cupcake. Lame card tricks are shown off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm allowed to make fun of homeschooled people because I was one for five VERY LONG years, and my younger siblings were for a few years after that, too. True homeschool culture is knowing exactly how to make fun of other homeschooled people.

 

She had taken the last cupcake.

"You know you'll never catch me!" Ladybug screamed over her shoulder as she swung out of his grasp once again.

She knew he wanted that cupcake.

"I'm faster than you, Bugaboo, and you know it!" He vaulted close enough to grab her yoyo string, but she dropped to the ground and reeled her weapon in before his grasp could do any good.

In fact, she was the one who insisted on an even split of the baked goods.

"Ha! You wish! I've always been faster!"

Yet she still grabbed that last cupcake, held it tauntingly in front of his face, and then took the biggest bite she could.

Ladybug landed on top of a plywood board covering part of a construction site, a cement hole in the ground, basically. She turned towards him, probably to taunt him again. Chat had a terrible idea.

"Cataclysm!"

The board under her feed disintegrated and Ladybug fell into the hole.

"Chat! You used Cataclysm!"

"I did," he said with a smirk. He walked to the edge of the hole and waited for her yoyo to wrap around him and either pull him into the pit with her or use him to pull herself up.

"Who said you can use that outside of an akuma fight?"

"Who said I can't?"

"Actually..." she frowned and for a split second he was expecting her to use that cute frown to distract him enough to get away again. "My kwami never specified that my powers were only for akumas."

"Well, Lucky Charm should reverse Cataclysm outside of a battle too, right?"

"Let's find out," she said. "Lucky Charm!"

A deck of cards fell into Ladybug's hand.

"How is this supposed to help?"

"Obviously," Chat said, jumping into the hole with her, "The Lucky Charm wants us to make up and be friends again."

"And how will cards help with that?" she asked, handing them over when Chat held out his hand.

"Lucky Charm obviously knows I'm skilled at card tricks."

"Card tricks? Like, 'is this your card' sort of thing?"

Chat sat on the floor of the hole and Ladybug joined him, knee to knee in the small space.

"Exactly like that," Chat said. "I was homeschooled for a while. I thought this would be a good way to impress girls."

"You know, I would have guessed the homeschool part from the part where you thought this would impress girls," she said.

"I can also name the capital of every country and pi to the 100th decimal place."

Ladybug laughed. "Alright, let's see these card trick moves," she said.

Chat got through three tricks before he couldn't ignore his ring's beeping any longer.

"I guess the main disadvantage of using our powers on patrol is then we're on a timer," Ladybug said, handing Chat the card he had correctly identified and standing.

"A significant disadvantage," Chat said. "Anything that shortens my time with you is something the world could do without."

"Let's climb out before we try and restore the board over this hole," Ladybug said.

"Of course." Chat extended his baton a few feet and placed one end on the ground. He held out his hand and Ladybug wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

Chat raised them out of the hole so they could step forward onto the ground. Ladybug backed up a couple steps and Chat followed suit.

"Miraculous Ladybug!" she shouted, tossing the deck of cards aloft.

The swarm of ladybugs fixed the board and they had their answer.

"Good to know," Ladybug said. "Well, this was fun."

"I'll chase you around another time, My Lady," Chat said with a bow.

"Silly kitty," she said, bopping his nose with her fingertip. "You'll try."

They each bounded off into the night, and like every night, he wondered if she was headed in the direction of her house or if she was throwing him off her trail.

Either way, he could always chase her another time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Talk with me over at [cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com](https://cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com/) if you like :)


	4. Laugh (Puns/Clumsiness/Favor)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chat Noir does such a bad job sitting still he falls off the roof.

“-and that would just be _purr_ ific, don't you think, Bugaboo?”

Ladybug and Chat Noir were on a stakeout based off a tip from a civilian about Hawkmoth. These never panned out, but it was all they had to go on. The problem was, someone wouldn't. Shut. Up.

"Hey, Chat?" Ladybug said, keeping her eyes trained on the screen of her yoyo, zoomed in on the window they were watching.

"Yeah, Ladybug?"

"I'm really sorry to ask this," she said, glancing at him and away quickly. "But I need a favor." She bit her lip and hung her head a little for effect.

"Anything," Chat said, stilling his constant movement and watching her every move. "Anything you need, My Lady, that's what I'm here for."

"Really?" she asked. "I don't want to ask too much of you."

"You could never ask too much of me. What do you need?" He put his hand on her shoulder, and she felt the tiniest twinge of guilt at what she was about to do. And then she remembered him reciting every knock knock joke he knew ten minutes ago.

"Okay." She took a deep breath. "For the next five minutes, please, for the love of everything good on this earth, be quiet and sit still."

"...what?"

"Five minutes. Silence, stillness. That's what I need."

"But-"

"Can you do that? For me?"

"I... yeah, of course." He settled against the roof for a second, muttered a, "Sorry, Ladybug," and went quiet.

And it stayed blessedly silent. Ladybug was able to concentrate properly, getting a better idea about the people she could see through the window, watching their mannerisms and body language to assess their threat risk.

And then Chat Noir fell off the roof.

"Chat!" Ladybug slid from her sitting position to lean her head and torso off the edge of the roof. Her partner was sprawled out on the ground three stories down, but he was already shaking his head, dusting himself off, and climbing to his feet.

"What was that?" she asked when he had used his baton to land back on the roof.

"Nothing. I'm fine, see?" He cartwheeled across the roof and did back handsprings back to her side. "Completely fine!"

"But why did you fall in the first place?"

"Because I can't actually sit still that long," he said, resuming his spot on the roof and using his baton to zoom in on the window they were watching.

"School must be very difficult for you then," Ladybug said, sitting next to him again.

"Nah, I'm fine at school," he said.

"Then how is sitting here now any different?"

"I'm Chat Noir now."

Ladybug paused for a second, trying to decide if his reason actually made sense.

"What does that mean?" she asked. "You're still you now."

"I am me now," he said. "I'm not at school."

"Why not?"

He shrugged. "Without getting into identity-revealing things? Because I have to be. It's expected of me. This is the only time I can talk and joke and move and be me. I have a hard time pretending to be the other guy when I'm wearing the mask because this is the one time I know I'm not him."

Ladybug felt that spark of guilt from earlier blaze to life.

"I didn't know you felt like that," she said. Her hand landed on his knee. "I didn't know you acted that way because you couldn't any other time."

"It's not a big deal, Ladybug," he said, giving a half smile and patting her hand. "I was _bug_ ging you. I can tone it down."

Ladybug gave a half shrug half nod and went back to watching the window. She needed some way to properly apologize to him, to show him she did love the fidgety, goofy, "punny" side of him even when it drove her crazy.

"Hey, Chat?" she said a minute later when the right answer finally came to her.

"Yeah, LB?"

"Knock knock."

He turned to her, disbelief and wonder on his face. "Who's there?"

"The chicken."

"The chicken who?"

"The chicken who crossed the road."

Chat Noir's laugh was enough to mend the burnt patch inside her from her guilt. It was enough to mend everything in her, really.

Chat's laugh when he was surprised was a little familiar, too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Talk with me over at [cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com](https://cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com/) if you like :)


	5. Ding (Bell/Addictive)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ladybug realizes her affinity for her partner's bell.

_Ding_

Ladybug could remember the first time she reached out to flick Chat Noir's bell. The stupid bell was just right there, so tempting. And he had just made some stupid pun. So she just reached out and-

_ Ding _

"Keep out of trouble, Kitty."

She actually remembered the second time she touched the bell, but it wasn't to ring it, it was to grab it and pull Chat's face down to yell at him. He had thrown himself in front of her to shield her once again. She hated every hit he had ever taken for her, and in that moment, he needed to know it. Loudly, and right in his face.

It took a few months after that for Ladybug to notice just how often she would reach for that little golden bell. To tease him, to annoy him, to distract him, to focus him. It wasn't quiet as useful as his belt, but secretly it was her favorite part of his costume.

"If I didn't know any better," Chat said one day, catching her hand before it could fully withdraw from under his chin, "I'd think you like ringing my bell."

"Ew, Chat," she said, wrinkling her nose and pulling her hand away.

"What?" he asked. He looked genuinely confused.

"I'm not explaining that one to you, Kitty Cat."

She hooked her yoyo on a far off point and ignored Chat's shouts of, "What did I say?"

While she did homework that night, Marinette realized Chat Noir was right. At least, in the sense he intended, not the other way. She liked seeing his eyes light up, she liked the tiny _ding_ , and she liked the very idea of her kitty having a bell on his collar.

"I am so sorry, My Lady," Chat said, dodging banana pudding that another akuma shot at them. "I didn't realize there was a double meaning to what I said, and I never would have-"

"Is now really the time?" Ladybug asked, spinning her yoyo to deflect the pudding.

"I just want you to know that I may flirt, but I'd never intentionally make you uncomfortable with sex jokes. I respect you, and-"

"The akuma's in his elbow pads!"

When they had restored the disgraced pudding-loving skateboarding champion, Ladybug made sure to flick Chat's bell before leaving, just to see his eyes light up and his shoulders relax, knowing she wasn't mad at him. Seeing his whole demeanor change from the simple action made Ladybug feel... powerful. In a different way than the miraculous magic made her feel powerful.

From there it got out of control. Every time she saw him, Ladybug's hand went to Chat Noir's collar. Every time he visibly brightened and she heard that _ding_ , her day got a little better and she just wanted to do it again.

She didn't realize just how ingrained this was until one afternoon in science lab. Apparently, the class hadn't been paying enough attention to the teacher lately. She had brought in a little bell to ring as a new means of demanding their attention. Marinette hadn't thought anything of it, until-

_Ding_

A happy, giddy feeling filled her. Her eyes snapped to the closest mop of blonde hair, and as her grin started to morph into the words, "Silly Kitty," she realized where she was. Who she was. And whose blonde hair was in front of her.

Marinette took a breath and tried to figure out why her heart was racing, why her cheeks were hot and she was craving- something? Something was definitely missing in that moment, something that she wanted more than anything. Whatever it was, it stayed right outside her grasp for the rest of class. As the rest of her classmates gathered up their things to head to the next class, Marinette went to the front of the room and picked up the small bell. She gave it the smallest _ding_ before setting it down again.

That was it. She knew what she was craving. It was a Pavlovian response. She heard a bell, and reacted. But instead of a dog drooling for food, she craved a Cat.

Marinette was addicted to Chat Noir, and that little bell was all the evidence she needed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Talk with me over at [cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com](https://cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com/) if you like :)


	6. Sweater (Secrets/Spots)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ladybug makes Chat a present.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Starting here, a plot has emerged. Yeah, yeah, this is the second time this has happened. When I’m not starting writing these months three days before they start, I promise I’ll be better about having a plot from the start or keeping to unconnected drabble format. Until then, you get what you get, my friends. Enjoy some LadyNoir :)

"You're keeping something from me again."

Ladybug had been about to call patrol to an early end when Chat said those words.

"What do you mean?" Ladybug asked, turning to face him.

"You're hiding something. Avoiding telling me something."

"No I'm-"

"I can tell when you're lying," Chat said, taking a step closer. "I can tell when you're not letting me in."

"What if I can't tell you?" she asked. "Or what if it's better to keep it secret?"

"That's an excuse," he said, crossing his arms. "I can see it in your eyes. If it really was one of those, you wouldn't feel guilty."

Ladybug reached a hand out to squeeze his arm. "What if I ask you to wait, instead of saying I can't say?"

"Like we have to wait until we defeat Hawkmoth to know each other?"

"Like please wait until Thursday," Ladybug said with a small smile.

Chat felt like a weight had been lifted. "Thursday?"

She nodded. "Thursday."

Ladybug did call patrol short then, and raced home. She had promised Thursday, so she had to finish her secret project in the next three days.

Chat Noir showed up early to patrol on Thursday. A good ninety minutes early, actually. So he wasn't expecting Ladybug to get there less than an hour after he did.

"You're early," they said at the same time.

"I was excited," Chat said.

"Me too," she said. She held out a newspaper wrapped package that he hadn't noticed she was carrying. "I don't know when your birthday is, and I'm not asking for it, but you said you were sad that a store sold out of the ladybug patterned sweaters, so I made you one."

Chat sat on the roof to carefully slice the tape on the package with his claws. He then removed the paper and folded it carefully next to him. He lifted the lid of the flimsy cardboard box and pulled out a black knitted sweater with ladybugs zigzagging up the front and back and down the sleeves. He ran a hand over the wool, then remembered his gloves wouldn't let him feel it and carefully held it up to his face, rubbing it on his cheek. He looked up at Ladybug and noticed she was blushing as hard as he was.

"You made this just because I said I was bummed a single store was out of a specific type of ladybug merch?"

She nodded.

He held the sweater out to look at it again. "This is way better than the one from the store."

"Really?"

"Oh, yeah," he said. "Look at your seams. And the consistency of the loop size, despite the fact that I'm betting this was hand-knitted?" She nodded. "Yeah, and the switching between colors is seamless. And it's softer. I love it, Ladybug."

"I'm glad," she said, holding a hand out to him to pull him to his feet. "You're the best partner I ever could have hoped for, and I wanted to show you."

"It's amazing, thank you," he said, pulling Ladybug into a hug. "I'm going to wear it all the time. Everyone in my life is going to get sick of it."

She hugged him back. "Good thing black is your color then."

Chat shrugged on the sweater over his suit and folded the paper and box to shove in his pocket until they found somewhere to recycle it. He wore it the whole patrol, even though it made getting his baton on and off of his back a little interesting.

"I can't believe the detail," Chat said when they had finished their loop of the city for the night. "The little spots on the ladybugs are so cute."

"I'm glad my instincts for a present for you were on point," Ladybug said. "Take care, Kitty."

"Thank you, Ladybug," he said, running a hand over the wool.

They parted and Marinette crawled through her skylight to get in bed.

"Did he like it?" Tikki asked.

"He loved it," she said. "You know, I think that's the first time I had to be sure I _didn't_ sign a present. Usually I forget to sign but should have."

"One day, you'll finally reveal and be glad you kept each other safe this way," Tikki said, snuggling into a pillow.

"I know," Marinette said, looking up at her ceiling. "Until then, I'll just have to keep making him things without signing them."

"And he'll love every one of them," Tikki said.

"I hope so," Marinette said.

She fell asleep dreaming of the boy wearing his new sweater, no gloves keeping his hands from feeling the soft fabric, no mask keeping him from her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Talk with me over at [cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com](https://cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com/) if you like :)


	7. Math (Partners/Half-Reveal)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette discovers Chat's identity and has trouble with a math test.

Marinette walked into school the next day a few minutes before the bell rang. She should have known that breaking her pattern and being early would never lead to anything good. The second she opened the door she wanted to turn around and head back down the stairs.

Chat Noir had somehow made his way into her classroom. He was sitting there, back to her, talking to Alix, wearing the sweater Ladybug had made him. How had he found her? Or maybe there was an akuma? But if there was an akuma, why would he be sitting in the classroom hanging out? Or maybe he scheduled an interview with Alya? No, Alya was working on homework on her tablet. Which was weird. If Alya and Chat Noir were in the same area and there was no immediate threat, then Alya should be pestering him with questions. Alya was acting like nothing strange was going on.

"Uh, the doorway is for everyone, Marinette Dupain-Cheng!"

"Yes, and I'm included under the umbrella of 'everyone', Chloe," Marinette responded on autopilot. She stepped out of the way though, moving closer to Chat. There had to be some way to ask him what was going on without revealing herself. She was running through a mental list of what she could say to him when he turned to face her.

"HI, Marinette."

"Adrien," she breathed.

Adrien Agreste was wearing the sweater she had made for Chat Noir. She knew it was her sweater because there was no way you worked on something, held it in your hands, stared at every stitch, built it from scratch for hours, and didn't recognize it on sight.

"Are you ready for the math test?"

Adrien Agreste was wearing the sweater she made for Chat Noir. There were a few possibilities for why. For example, perhaps Adrien mugged Chat on his way home last night. Perhaps Chat actually hated the gift and threw it out and Adrien found it. Maybe Adrien saw Chat wearing it and demanded his father use his fashion influence to get a perfect replica for himself.

But those possibilities were just her grasping at straws, trying not to come to the obvious conclusion.

Chat Noir sat in front of her every day in school.

Chat Noir did perfume ads.

Chat Noir had a Chinese lesson after school today.

Chat Noir was asking her a question.

"Marinette? You okay?"

"Fine."

Marinette marched past him to her desk. No way Chat was going to get the best of her today.

No way Adrien was going to get the best of her today?

Marinette decided this was Not The Time To Freak Out. She had a math test second period, and, unless there was an akuma attack between now and then, she was going to take notes, study, and focus on school. AdriChat would have to wait.

Marinette did terribly on that math test.

"Alya, I can't fail math! I need math! Math is good for things like knowing how much fabric to get and the cost per button in a big tub of buttons. I need math, Alya!"

They were sitting on the steps of the school to eat lunch together, and Marinette was sprawled out across Alya's lap, her despondence too great to do much but let Alya comfort her.

"You're gonna be okay, girl," Alya said. "I did pretty well. We could study together, I don't mind helping you out."

"Are we talking about the test?" Nino asked, sitting on Alya's other side and reaching out to tug lightly at one of Marinette's pigtails. "I am all for studying together. I did bad. Just... bad."

"I did pretty well," Adrien said, sitting next to Marinette. He put a hand on her shoulder and she sat up stiffly. "Alya and I could work together to figure out what you two are missing and fill in the blanks."

"Better idea," Alya said, evil glint in her eyes. "I'll tutor Nino, and you tutor Marinette. It's probably something this school is doing wrong, since us new kids are so good at math and these resident students are struggling. Divide and conquer. In fact, c'mon, Nino, let's go to the library and see if we can get a head start."

Alya dragged a protesting Nino back into the school. Adrien and Marinette sat stiffly next to each other.

"Are you okay with being my partner?" Marinette asked. She didn't realize she had a second meaning he couldn't know until she found herself holding her breath for his answer.

"I'd be honored," Adrien said, giving a wide model smile.

/*****/

"Good to see you, My Lady," Adrien- Chat? Who was he? said that evening on a rooftop overlooking the Seine.

"Figured I'd join you for your patrol, if you don't mind," she said, bouncing her yoyo up and down as if it was the toy it resembled and not a weapon.

"You're always welcome on my patrol night," he said. "I wore the sweater you made me to school today. I hope you don't mind."

"I made it for you to wear," she said, feeling another nail in the "Chat Is Adrien" coffin go "thunk" as it fell in place.

"Good, because I don't ever want to take it off," he said with a grin. "Shall we get started?"

"One question first," Ladybug said. "Two, actually."

"Anything."

"How are you at math?"

"Do you need a tutor?" Chat asked, confusion wrinkling his mask.

"I'm just curious. How are your math grades?"

"I'm pretty good at math," he said. "I like it. I like that there's always a right answer, everything's consistent and structured, but still free and beautiful." He shook his head. "I'm a bit of a nerd, really."

"Aw, Kitty, nerds are cute," Ladybug said with a giggle. "Okay, question two. Ready?"

"Is 'ready?' the question?"

"No."

"Oh. Then yes, I'm ready for your question."

"Are you okay with being my partner?"

She half hoped he would remember where he had heard those words today, recognize her for who she was so she wasn't carrying this burden alone.

"I'm honored."

The final nail. The coffin was closed. Being lowered to the ground.

Adrien Agreste was the cat boy with a crush on her.

Things were about to get very weird.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Talk with me over at [cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com](https://cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com/) if you like :)


	8. Misspoke (Hand Kiss/Public Relations)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> People get the wrong idea from a press conference.

"I hate press conferences," Chat said, fidgeting with his belt.

"Aw, I think you were made to be in front of a camera, Kitty," Ladybug said, leaning over to whisper in his cat ear. "You seem the photogenic type."

Marinette's discovery was still rolling around her brain. She couldn't bring herself to act any differently when Chat Noir stood in front of her. He was still her goofy partner. She felt self-conscious, and that put her on autopilot. And autopilot with Chat Noir, she was finding, was a little bit flirtier than she originally thought. But it was Still Not The Time To Freak Out, so flirty would just have to do.

"Not as much as you, Bugaboo," Chat said, falling into that point on the continuum between "sappy" and "lustful" that belonged solely to Chat Noir. And, apparently, Adrien. Marinette had had a headache for the past three days of trying to figure this out.

"Well, let's get this nonsense over with," Ladybug said, stretching like she was getting ready for a fight.

/*****/

The press conference went well. Or so the heroes thought. Right up until Alya burst into Marinette's room where she and Adrien were working on the night's math homework two hours later.

"Did you see?" Alya screeched.

"Hi, Alya," Adrien said like this was normal behavior he was witnessing.

"Turn on your computer!" Alya said, almost shoving Adrien out of his chair to reach the keyboard.

"Alya, we're studying-"

"Marinette, this is the biggest development in the LadyNoir story since-"

"I asked you not to call them that," Marinette said. "They're people, and-"

"Marinette, watch this!"

Alya pulled up a clip of the press conference from the Ladyblog. It was a clip of Adrien- Chat! Chat answering a question and kissing Ladybug's hand like the lovesick dork he was.

"Of course, we discovered this on one of our rooftop dates," Chat said. Hand kiss, wink. Nothing out of the ordinary?

"What am I looking at, Alya?" Marinette asked. "They act like that all the time."

"Are you kidding me?" Alya said. She replayed the clip.

"-one of our rooftop dates."

"What's so-"

"You think they're dating," Adrien said. His eyes were unnaturally wide.

"Think? He just said they go on dates! On rooftops! Superhero rooftop dates! It's the sweetest thing I've ever heard!"

Alya continued to rant for a minute while Adrien and Marinette got lost in their thoughts.

"I'm sorry, Marinette," Adrien said the second Alya stopped for breath. He was already gathering up his bags. "I just remembered I need to be home. I'll get to school early and help you with the rest of this problem set if you don't finish it on your own, okay?"

Her Kitty was freaking out.

Marinette and Alya bid Adrien goodbye, then Marinette found an excuse to get Alya to leave as well.

"Well, I guess I should go check on him," Marinette said to Tikki.

"You need to be careful about this, Marinette," Tikki said. "I'm still worried about what you knowing his identity will do to your relationship."

"So you've changed your mind? I should tell him that I know?" Marinette asked.

"I still think you should talk to Master Fu," Tikki said.

"But you said he might take away our miraculouses and give them to someone else!" Marinette said. "I'll keep it a secret from Chat if we get to stay Ladybug and Chat Noir."

Tikki sighed. They had been having this fight on and off for three days.

"Let's just go check on him," Tikki said. "You two have a new problem to deal with."

"The original problem was more than enough. I don't even know how I feel about him any more!" Marinette said. "And now everyone thinks we're dating?"

/*****/

"My Lady!"

"Hey, Chat."

"Have you seen the news? I'm sorry, I didn't even think!"

"It's okay, Chat!" Ladybug put a hand on his shoulder, hoping he would lose the manic, scared look in his eye. "We both call patrol 'rooftop dates'. You didn't do anything wrong."

"I did. I knew how that sounded when we first started using it, I just... forgot. I'm so sorry."

Instinct guiding her again, Ladybug pulled her partner into her arms. He hugged her back immediately, and she almost broke and told him she knew. But then he might figure out how she knew. He might figure out who she was. And then the risk was doubled.

"It's fine," she said, pulling away. "We'll call another press conference or give an exclusive interview and set everyone straight. In fact, let's go see if the mayor is free now. He can pull together another quick press conference and this will all be fixed."

"I don't want anyone thinking we're dating unless and until it's true," Chat- Adrien? said. His stare was just a little too intense, lasted a little too long.

"Don't worry, Kitty." She gave his fingers a squeeze and they set off for the mayor's office.

/*****/

"Absolutely not!"

"Um... You don't really get a say in if it's true or not that we're dating," Chat pointed out.

The mayor crossed his arms. "You just said you were earlier today. The whole city is talking about it! Everyone is excited for you!"

"But we aren't dating," Ladybug said.

"But you said you were!"

"Mr. Bourgeois," Ladybug said. "It was just a figure of speech. A shorthand we use. 'Rooftop date' means 'patrol' to us."

"But you can't break up!"

"We technically can't-"

Andre Bourgeois cut Chat Noir off. "If you break up, think of the people! Everyone will be upset! Akumas everywhere! Terrible for business. And tourism!"

"Mr. Bourgeois-"

"He's right," Ladybug said, cutting Chat off again. "I hate to admit it, but he's right."

"But... we aren't."

"Thank you, Mr. Mayor," Ladybug said, dragging Chat by the arm out of the window through which they had arrived.

On the roof of the building, Chat started pacing. "What do we do? We're not dating, but now everyone will be upset if they find that out. How do we convince everyone that it's okay and they shouldn't be upset enough to be akumatized over us?"

"I don't think we can, Kitty," she said.

"Then what do we do? I know you're interested in someone else, I don't want you to date me if your heart's not in it."

"Well... what do you think about putting on a show?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Talk with me over at [cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com](https://cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com/) if you like :)


	9. Flavors (Claws and Bugs/Secrets)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ladybug and Chat Noir partake in a Paris dating tradition.

It took some convincing, but Ladybug got Chat Noir to agree to fake date. She had hoped that when she and Adrien decided to go on a date, it wouldn't take convincing. She had also hoped she would be Marinette, not Ladybug, and that he would be Adrien, not Chat Noir, and that the date would be real, not fake. But she would take what she could get. Also the entire city becoming akumatizable over their lack of romantic involvement would probably ruin her month, and this was the best plan they had.

"You're really okay with this?" Chat asked for the seventeenth time that afternoon.

"It was my idea, remember?"

"Right, right."

Ladybug was handling this all very well, if she did say so herself. She understood and acknowledged that she was going on a fake date with her crush and her partner. She comprehended that a romantic scene with Adrien but also Chat was about to happen. And she was totally fine with it.

Chat smiled and held out his hand for her to take.

She was _not_ fine with it. Oh no, it was hitting her all at once. This was _Adrien_  and that smile was Adrien's soft smile, and Adrien's outstretched hand, and-

"Oh," Chat said after an awkwardly long time with his hand hovering before her. "Sorry, we don't have to do that. I don't want you to be ucomf-"

"We're partners and we touch all the time!" Ladybug yelled. More as a realization than to clarify her position on small displays of affection for the good of their ruse. Her whole body was stiffening as her mind was drawing chalk figures of a boy with blonde hair and a boy with cat ears and her own heart exploding.

"Uh, well, yeah, but... but that's a life saving thing. I understand if you see that as separate from..." Ladybug could see a blush blooming below his mask. His discomfort multiplied hers.

"It's... it's for Paris, right?" Ladybug said. "So... so if it's for them... I'll hold your hand."

"Not if it would make you uncomfortable," Chat said, crossing his arms.

This argument went on for a little while. Ladybug eventually grabbed Chat Noir's hand and dragged him along to their first "date". Taking charge calmed her some. When Chat saw what their date was, he pulled her to a stop by their connected hands.

"But, Ladybug! We... we can't!"

"Why not?"

"Andre's Ice Cream is magic! I- I've gone before. Andre knew exactly who I love. We're faking, and what he does is real. It won't work."

"Well..." If Chat had gone to Andre and Andre had known who he loved (Ladybug, last time she had checked), and she had gone and Andre had identified who she loved (Adrien who was Chat), and if the ice cream magic hypothetically worked... They should be fine, right? And if not, and Andre was just making it up, then it would still be fine.

"I'm sure we can think of another date," Chat said. "Picnic in the park? Stroll along the Seine? An actual rooftop date?"

"No," Ladybug said. "Everyone expects us to get ice cream. Have you seen the comments on the Ladyblog? Besides, the magic probably isn't real. And if it is, and it looks like Andre has doubts, we quietly ask him to give us non-magic ice cream for the good of Paris. We have to keep this secret, Chat, and it'll look too suspicious if we don't do this."

Chat sighed. "I don't like betraying what the ice cream stands for like this."

"It stands for the idea of love," Ladybug said. "And we love each other. Maybe not like everyone thinks we do, but we love each other..."

As she said the words, she realized just how much she wanted to tell him "I love you" for real. Something about her partner had always made her feel he wasn't told that he was loved, and lovable, often enough. Having seen how little familial love Adrien got these days, she knew she had been right. This boy deserved to know he was loved... But if she told him now, he would think it was part of the fake dating, or brought about by mixed feelings from the fake dating. Ugh, this plan was seeming worse by the second!

Chat took a breath. He looked at the ice cream, and then at Ladybug. His gaze was intense and searching, like he was reading her. Finally he nodded.

"Let's go get some ice cream."

Andre was delighted. "I had hoped you two would stop by! I have a new ice cream creation I give out in honor of you two. I'll make one for you two to split."

Andre took a scoop of black ice cream and plopped it into a cone. On top of that was a bright red scoop.

"Activated charcoal from coconut shell for Chat Noir, supporting a scoop of strawberry red- the color comes from crushed beetle shells!- for his Ladybug. I call it, 'Claws and Bugs'!"

The heroes of Paris froze. Finally, Chat Noir reached out to take the "treat". They thanked Andre and made a hasty retreat.

"So... crushed bug and coconut ash ice cream?" Ladybug asked, taking one of the spoons to poke at the dessert.

"That sounds..."

"Awful?"

"Yeah."

"Well... we have to try it, right?" Ladybug scooped up some of her red ice cream and tried not to grimace. "We should probably get a selfie of us eating this."

"Let's taste it first," Chat said, taking a scoop of the black ice cream.

"On three?"

"One."

"Two."

"Three."

They both made faces.

"This is the worst fake strawberry flavoring I have ever encountered," Ladybug said, sticking her tongue out and screwing up her face so hard one eye closed.

"I don't even like coconut," Chat said. He looked betrayed.

"Okay, well, maybe we weren't supposed to eat the one that represents us," she said. "You try strawberry, I'll try charcoal."

"One."

"Two."

"Three."

They fed each other this time, but made the same faces.

"That's not even good coconut," Ladybug said.

"I didn't know ice cream could be _too_ sweet," Chat Noir said.

They stared at the ice cream for a silent moment, wondering how a favorite frozen snack could possibly go so wrong.

"What was Andre thinking?" Ladybug asked.

"I don't know," Chat said. "Let's just take a selfie with the ice cream, throw it out somewhere, and go find a sunny roof to hang out on."

"Now _that_  sounds like a nice date," Ladybug said. She held up her yoyo and they angled their heads together, the treat held in front of them. She posted the picture to their shared social media account and they went off to play another round of "would you rather- Akuma style".

Fortunately for Andre's business and unfortunately for the citizens of Paris’s tastebuds, "Claws and Bugs" became a very famous dessert option.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Talk with me over at [cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com](https://cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com/) if you like :)


	10. Jam (Friends/Communication)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This time it's Ladybug's slip of the tongue that causes problems. She and Chat Noir talk things out and set some limits on their fake dating performance.

"Ladybug!"

It was after an akuma battle and Chat Noir had just made a hasty exit due to there being less than a minute until he would change back. Ladybug turned towards the familiar voice calling her name and tried to smile.

"Hello, Miss Ladyblog!"

"Ladybug, you and Chat Noir have been reluctant to speak on your change in relationship status. Why is that?"

Ladybug watched Alya adjust her phone's camera to capture her better.

"Uh, well, we felt it was a private thing, like our identities," she said.

"Was Chat mentioning you two going on dates a slip of the tongue, or a decision you two had made together beforehand?"

Ladybug and Chat Noir hadn't talked about this. They had made a date (ugh, not _that_  kind of date!) for their next patrol to talk about what they would and wouldn't say to the press. But it was Alya asking, and Marinette always tried to make sure that Alya got news first when she had a choice.

"It was a slip, but we didn't mind."

"Is Chat Noir a good kisser?"

Ladybug's brain short-circuited for a moment. She had been avoiding thinking about this specific topic after seeing how disastrous holding Chat/Adrien's hand was. Letting herself think about kissing her long time crush, who was also her very attractive, very flirty, very fun partner...

"Fantastic."

Oops. She had said that out loud.

"Okay, no time for more questions, gotta run!"

/*****/

"Hey, Chat, I brought some bread, but then I realized how boring that is alone, so I went back and got jam, and then I thought we'd need a knife, so I went back again. Which is a long way of saying that I hope this bread and jam makes up for me being late."

"Thanks," Chat said, taking the bread she held out. He stood there, holding the bread and staring off towards the heart of the city.

"You seem distracted, Kitty," Ladybug said, sitting down with the jam and knife and thermos of tea.

"Uh so... I saw your mini-interview," Chat said. He was still standing, and now flipping the small loaf of bread over and over in his hands.

"What interv-"

Oh.

Oh.

That interview.

"Uh... I can explain..."

Chat Noir started to rant and pace, still flipping the bread over in his hands. "I'm just not sure how I feel about you saying that we're kissing. Much less saying that I'm good at kissing. I've never kissed. I don't know if I'll be any good at it. But even if I'm not an awful kisser, I don't think we should take this so far that we kiss. I can't... I just couldn't handle that, Ladybug. You think the best thing for now is to act like we're together, let the city get obsessing over us out of their system, and I agree. But Ladybug-" He knelt down in front of her, setting the bread on the bag in which she had carried everything. "I know I joke and flirt. I know I do. But this kind of thing? It's something I take seriously."

"I..."

Chat pivoted to sit next to her. "I'm sorry. It's just that we hadn't talked about this side of it, and it's been eating at me because... because it's important to me. You're important to me."

She almost kissed him right then and there. He cared so much. His heart was so big and so full and all she wanted to do was make him comfortable again. To take away the anxious side of him waiting for her to continue their dance around his known feelings (and her unknown ones).

She almost kissed him. But that wouldn't have been fair.

She vowed to herself in that moment not to kiss him (again, but they didn't talk about the Dark Cupid incident) until he knew who she was, and that she had known who he was and not told him she knew. If they could survive that... She would kiss him.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything without talking to you first. And we won't do a single thing you're not comfortable with, including kissing." She slid closer and put her head on his shoulder. "Thank you."

"You're welcome? What did I do?"

"You set a boundary. Now I know that you won't let me do something you don't like. I know you'll be honest with me, so I know we'll be okay."

Chat sighed and put an arm around her. "I was worried you would be mad. It might be hard to sell this without kisses."

"I don't want to kiss for crowds either, Kitty."

"Then why..."

Ladybug busied herself with cutting the bread and spreading the jam, hoping her face didn't match her suit in hue.

"Ladybug? Why say that I'm good at kissing?"

"I didn't mean to?"

"You're saying that you accidentally said that you enjoy kissing me?"

"Do you like the flavor of this tea? It's new, I thought we'd try it."

"You're hiding something from me."

She froze. She was hiding a lot of things from him.

“Ladybug…”

She could hear it in his voice. See it in the shift of his shoulders.

“Do you…”

There was an eighty percent chance she was about to want to flip Chat Noir off the roof.

“Think about kissing me?”

Curse that cat.

“No.”

“Really? Because I think,” he leaned in, his nose inches from hers, “this cute blush says otherwise.”

His finger ghosted along the lower edge of her mask and the urge to kiss him became almost overwhelming.

Instead, she followed through on a different urge. She really did flip him off the roof.

She caught him with her yoyo before he reached the end of his four story fall.

But he deserved that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Talk with me over at [cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com](https://cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com/) if you like :)


	11. Memory (Habits/Eiffel Tower)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tikki gives Marinette an option to fix the fact that she knows Chat's identity and feels like she's betraying him by not telling him that. Ladybug has to ask Chat for a favor.

"Tikki..."

"Yes, Marinette?"

"Has Chat Noir always touched me this much?"

Tikki giggled. "Maybe you're just noticing it more?"

"Maybe..."

Marinette could still feel the weight of Chat's arm around her shoulders. He had put it there after an akuma battle that morning during a quick encounter with the press. She could feel where his claws had lightly scraped down her arm when he checked if the akuma had managed to burn her that afternoon (they were both getting sick of fire breathing akumas). The press of his fingers into hers at the end of patrol. She was surprised when she looked at her arm and hand that there was no visible mark of his presence. And he had touched her less today than yesterday.

"Tikki... I love him. Lying to him is wrong."

"We can't keep going over this, Marinette," Tikki said. Her little shoulders drooped. She always hated half reveals.

"What if I just tell him that I know? It's been long enough that he probably doesn't remember wearing the sweater to class."

"It's not worth the risk. If you love him, you'll keep him safe. And if he loves you, he would want you to keep the secret to keep yourself safe. Think of all the times he's sacrificed himself for you!"

Marinette sighed, trying to reign in her frustration. "I just want to do the right thing. I didn't think giving him a gift would result in all this going wrong."

"I know," Tikki said, floating over to brush Marinette's hair out of her face. "I didn't think he'd wear it to school. And his kwami couldn't exactly tell him why not to."

They were quiet for a moment, and Tikki said, "I didn't want to suggest this before, but Master Fu might have a solution that doesn't involve telling Chat Noir or taking away your miraculous."

"What? That's great! Why didn't you suggest this sooner?"

"It comes at a price."

/*****/

"Plagg?" Adrien was sprawled on his back in the middle of his bed. Staring contests with his ceiling were part of being in love at this point.

"Not this again."

"I'm in love with her and pretending that she loves me back. And she's much better at pretending than I am."

"I'm going to need a piece of cheese for every minute you stay on this topic."

"Though, I guess I'm not pretending. But we're not really dating, so I guess I am."

"You should go for patrol early so I can get some peace and quiet."

"I should finish some homework first."

Adrien made no move to rise from his lovestruck position.

"I'm imagining her flirting with me more when we're away from the cameras, right?"

Plagg sighed heavily.

"But she's also been a little weird and distant."

Plagg prayed for a reveal soon almost as hard as he prayed for cheese.

/*****/

"Knew I'd find you here," Ladybug said a few days later. The Eiffel Tower was lit up and the inherent romance was not lost on Marinette.

"I'm getting predictable, huh?" Chat asked, holding out a hand to help her sit next to him.

"Only to me," she said.

"Did you want to turn this into patrol? I was just out for some fresh air."

"Nope! I was looking for you."

"Oh? Couldn't stay away?" He winked.

"Silly kitty," she said, bumping her shoulder into his and giggling.

"What did you need, My Lady?"

"I might be unavailable for a couple days," she said. "I can't tell you why. So if there's an akuma, I was hoping to wait until you get the akumatized item and then I transform, call Lucky Charm, purify the butterfly, use the Cure, and go home. I’ll also need you to cover my patrols until I’m back. I don't want to put everything on you, and I wouldn't ask unless it was important-"

"Are you okay?"

Ladybug hated concern in his voice. She wanted him not to worry.

"I'm okay, I promise," she said.

"Then yeah, I can do that."

"Oh, and Rena will have her miraculous while I'm out of commission, so you won't be alone for the fights."

Chat grinned. "As much as I like our time together, I kinda wish Rena was full time with us. She's a lot of fun, and really great with her flute."

"I'm sure she'd like that, too," Ladybug said, resting her head on his shoulder. "I'm going to miss you these next couple days."

"I'll miss you, too. You make my days better, Bugaboo."

They stayed and chatted for a little while before Chat headed home. Ladybug made a stop at a certain healer's shop.

"Marinette, are you ready?" Master Fu asked.

"Go over it one more time," she asked, fidgeting with the strap of her purse.

"I will go in and remove the memory of discovering who Chat Noir is. You will have a very bad headache and be tired for a few days as your brain rewires everything back together. It's best to rest as much as possible during that time, which is why Rena will keep her miraculous until you're ready to get back in the battle. It's very risky, doing this. There's a good chance a few other memories are tied, directly or indirectly, to the memory of discovering Chat Noir. Sometimes I can't safely sever those memories from each other, so I would have to take the connected ones, too. Usually, the rewiring makes this unnoticeable, but deja vu, momentarily forgetting simple things, and other temporary memory issues are all common after memory modification."

Marinette nodded. She had torn out and shredded the pages of her diary that mentioned that Adrien was Chat Noir and left herself a letter to make sure she didn't go looking for whatever piece of memory she was missing. She was ready for this.

"Are you sure about your choice?" Master Fu asked.

"If I don't, you'll take our miraculous," she said. "And Paris can't survive new heroes getting their feet under them while Hawkmoth is at full power."

Fu nodded. "I wish you'd come to me as soon as it happened. I could have offered you this choice before there was time for memories to get connected to the one you need removed."

"I didn't mention this to her until tonight," Tikki said. "You know I don't like this. Memories are a part of us. Taking them out... I just don't like it."

"But it's my choice," Marinette said. "And I'd rather lose all my memories than put Chat or the city at risk."

"That is why you make such a good Ladybug," Fu said. "Are you ready to begin?" She nodded. "Okay. Sit still, take a deep breath, and concentrate on the moment you realized who was behind your partner's mask."

Master Fu placed his hands against Marinette's forehead, and everything went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... I've gone full trope on this story. Half-reveal, fake dating, Andre's (horrible) ice cream, and now memory modification. If there are any specific tropes you'd like to see me try to work into the rest of the month, let me know and I'll consider them. (No promises though!) You can leave a comment with a suggestion or drop by [cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com](https://cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com/) where every message and ask makes my day <3


	12. Holes (Time/Summer Nights)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette recovers from her magical memory treatment. She finds herself feeling things she didn't expect and gets a surprise.

Marinette woke up in her room. She was surprised that she remembered that she had had her memory modified. She even remembered Master Fu putting her in a taxi after the treatment and texting her to make sure she got home okay.

"How are you feeling, Marinette?" Tikki asked when she saw Marinette sit up in her bed.

"Headache, but that's to be expected, right?"

"It is. Do you want a cookie or some tea?"

"I'll get breakfast soon." She looked around her room. She saw the letter she had written herself, but didn't feel the need to read it. She remembered writing it. If she didn't remember going to Master Fu's with the purpose of having a memory removed, she wouldn't know anything was different. She tried thinking back of the last couple weeks and nothing seemed amiss. It made her headache worse though.

"Thinking too hard?" Tikki asked.

"Yeah, probably," she said, rubbing at her head.

"Take it easy for the weekend," Tikki said. "Your finals just ended and it's summer vacation! You have all the time to rest now."

"Yeah... how does a Disney princess movie marathon sound?"

"Sounds like fun!"

/*****/

"Ladybug had better get here soon!" Rena Rouge yelled to Chat Noir as they ran away from the very angry traveling salesman, screaming for them to return his map.

"She said she would get here once we nabbed the object," he said, holding up the map. "So we just keep running until she can purify the- There she is!"

Ladybug stood on a rooftop nearby, waving at them. Rena turned to hold the supervillain off while Chat jumped building to building until he was at Ladybug's side.

"Wow... you look-"

"Don't say awful," she said, cutting him off. "I know I look awful."

He shook his head. "I was going to say 'like you're in a lot of pain'. Are you okay? Did you get your wisdom teeth out or something?"

She laughed and then winced. "Something like that. Let's make this quick," she said, gesturing for the map covered in lines between cities with numbers indicating the cost of traveling between any two cities. She already had a calculator Lucky Charm in her hand. Chat tore it in half and Ladybug quickly de-evilized the butterfly within. Her calculator was tossed in the air and everyone who had been struck with the salesman's briefcase stopped calculating the cost of different paths through the cities on his route.

"Is there anything I can do?" Chat asked, ignoring her beeping earrings and his beeping ring.

"I should be better in another day or so," she said. "I've been holed up in my nice, dark bedroom and that's been helping. As soon as I'm back you won't be able to get rid of me," she said, her smile briefly overtaking the grimace she'd worn the entire time.

"Whenever you're up for it, meet me at the Tower. I'll be there every night until you're back full time," Chat said. He reached out and squeezed Ladybug's hand. "I've missed you, Ladybug. Patrol is better with you."

She hugged him, a feeling of... she wasn't sure what, coming over her.

"I'll see you soon, Kitty," she said. She pulled away and flicked his bell. When he looked down on instinct to try and see the bell, she turned and left.

/*****/

She waited until it was dark and headed to the Eiffel Tower. She couldn't explain why she went back out, but she felt she needed to. Being Ladybug and running around was exhausting, but at least now that the sun was down, her head wasn't any worse than in her room.

"My Lady!"

Chat jumped to his feet the moment he saw her swing towards where he was sitting on a cross beam.

"Hey, Kitty," she said, immediately sitting down. Being tired was inconvenient.

"I didn't expect you tonight," he said.

"But you're here anyway."

She watched him catalog her slumped shoulders and the bags under her eyes and every other little detail he could. He really cared about her. His worry was like a warm blanket. She felt shy under his gaze.

"C'mere," Chat said, holding out one arm. It took her a second to figure out what he wanted. She tucked herself into his side and his arm settled against her side, the lightest weight.

"What kind of hug is that?" she asked, tugging his arm tighter around herself.

"I don't want to hurt you," he said.

They sat quietly for a minute and Ladybug found his presence so soothing she considered letting herself fall asleep against his shoulder, just for a minute. Maybe even sliding to put her head in his lap and stretch out, fully relaxed with her favorite person. Wait, favorite?

"You're not here because you're ready to come back yet, are you?"

"Not yet," she said, shifting a little so she could see him better. "When the headache is bearable and the tiredness goes away." She hesitated before adding, "But I had to see you."

"Me?"

"Yep."

Another quiet moment passed before Chat asked, "And what does that mean?"

"It means you're my partner and I missed you," she said.

He was quiet for a minute. She noticed him taking a breath, tensing, and then slowly relaxing, three or four times.

"Spit it out," she said.

"It's still all fake, right?"

"What?"

"We're just putting on a show. I don't want you getting... confused. That's not fair to you." His hand came up to scratch at the back of his head and she missed its weight. "Or-or to me, really. I know you like someone else, and you know I like you, and I just... Sometimes it doesn't feel fake."

"What's fake?" Ladybug asked, turning to face him as he fiddled with his miraculous. "Our friendship? Chat, you mean so much to me!"

"No... I meant... the dating thing."

"The what?"

Chat turned to her now. She looked lost. "Ladybug?" He brushed her hair away from her face, and she looked up into his eyes. "What happened to you?"

“I don't... remember."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Talk with me over at [cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com](https://cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com/) if you like :)


	13. Letter (Food/New Look)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette reads the letter she wrote herself before the memory removal. Ladybug and Chat Noir have a rooftop picnic.

Ladybug had a bad habit. Well, Marinette did. Usually as Ladybug, she didn't give in, but today she did.

Ladybug ran. She made an excuse to Chat Noir and headed home as fast as her tired body would let her.

"Tikki?" Marinette's voice was shrill and she started pacing before Tikki was all the way out of her earrings. "Are Chat Noir and I dating? Is that the memory I had removed? What's going on? I thought everything was normal, that I remembered everything I needed to, and my headache was getting better. He said... he said, 'the dating thing', like... like he and I were dating! But why would I do that? I love Adrien! I wouldn't give up on Adrien, would I?"

"Master Fu said there was a memory connected to the target one that he couldn't sever," Tikki said. "Marinette, calm down. You aren't dating Chat Noir. You're pretending to. Here, pull up the Ladyblog." Tikki directed Marinette to the day that Chat made the city think they were together. "You came up with the idea of pretending for a while so that no one would get sad and be akumatized because you two weren't together."

"Tikki, why would we fake date?"

_Now I see why those memories were connected_ , Tikki thought to herself. Marinette probably wouldn't have suggested fake dating had she not known Adrien was the one with whom she was doing this.

"It made sense at the time," Tikki said. "Preventing akumas upset over you two making them think you're dating and then finding out you aren't."

"Tikki, did I make a mistake, having my memory changed?"

"Oh, Marinette," Tikki said, flying over to cuddle against her cheek. "It was a hard choice, there was no good answer. Do you want to read the letter you wrote yourself?"

"I remember writing it," Marinette said. "It can't be that helpful, can it?"

"Give it a try."

Marinette slid the paper from the envelope and leaned on her desk, reading by the light of her computer screen.

_Marinette,_

_ You're going to have some memories removed. Maybe you remember that, maybe you don't, but the important part is, it's safest if you don't know. Not knowing will keep you safer, Chat safer, and the city safer. Knowing was making you stressed, and becoming an akuma with what you knew would have put too much at risk. Trust yourself. You did this for the right reasons. I just know everything will work out. _

_Marinette_

"I sound pretty convinced," Marinette said.

"You were," Tikki said with a giggle. "Master Fu had to insist that you think about it for a few hours before he agreed to do it."

Marinette nodded. Then she threw herself forward to bury her head in her arms on her desk.

"I just ran away from a very concerned and confused Chat Noir! He's going to be so worried! How could I do that to him?"

"Just give him a call, I'm sure he'll understand."

Marinette transformed and threw a blanket over her head so Chat couldn't see any of her room behind her in the screen on her yoyo. The anxious fluttering in her stomach as the line was ringing was just because she felt bad about scaring Chat. Right?

"My Lady! Are you okay? Was it- was it what I said? I didn't mean to-"

"Chat!"

"Ladybug?"

"I'm sorry I scared you."

"You said... you said you didn't remember."

"I didn't. It's just this headache. I'll be fine."

"But... Ladybug, you didn't see the look on your face."

"Let's have dinner tomorrow night," she said. That was part of fake dating, right? Getting to have a nice meal with her favorite person. Wait, why was she thinking of him like that again? "I'll get a good night's sleep, relax tomorrow, and then at dinner you'll see I'm totally fine."

"If you're sure..."

"Absolutely."

/*****/

"I needed this," Ladybug said, leaning against Chat Noir's shoulder. They had their backs to a chimney and were staring out on the city's lights. The remains of their meal sat in front of them, and the sense of peace Ladybug had felt the night before came back.

"You do seem better," Chat said. He reached over to brush the hair out of her eyes again and she smiled up at him.

Chat left his hand on her head, studying her face again.

"Got something on your mind, Kitty?" she asked.

"Oh no," he said, letting her bangs fall again and turning to grab the last roll from in front of him. "After how you reacted last night? I'm not bringing up anything important again. Not until you seem to be back to one hundred percent."

"I promise, I'm at, like, eighty nine percent now," she said, winding an arm around his waist. She felt him freeze but when she tried to pull her arm away, he grabbed her hand to keep it in place.

"Only eleven percent more then," he said, offering her a bite of the roll. She took as big a bite as she could, and he gave her a glare that didn't have any heat behind it.

They bickered and squabbled and flirted for a while longer before deciding they really did have to go home.

"So, are you still worried, or can we go back to normal?" Ladybug asked, reaching out to squeeze Chat's fingers.

"I'll let you know in eleven percent," Chat said. He squeezed her hand back and bounded off for home.

/*****/

Pictures of the rooftop date (not the patrol kind) were up on the Ladyblog before Adrien even got home.

"There, look there," he said to Plagg.

"It's you and Ladybug," Plagg said. "Ooh, what kind of cheese do I see on that plate?"

"Focus, Plagg. The look on her face there. That's new, right?"

"Was it good cheese?"

"She almost looks... almost looks like..."

"More importantly, did you save any cheese for me?"

"Plagg, what if she's really falling in love with me?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Talk with me over at [cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com](https://cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com/) if you like :)


	14. Together (Encouragement/Baton)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ladybug and Chat Noir have an awkward moment in front of reporters, but they work things out together.

"She forgot we were fake dating, then she... she acts... cuddly? I don't know what's going on anymore. She likes someone else. She told me that. Someone who isn't Chat Noir. And I want her to be happy. But I don't know if I can keep smiling for the cameras if she's going to keep leaning on me and grabbing my hands and hugging me. What do I do?"

Adrien was spinning in his desk chair, the Ladyblog up on his computer screens with pictures of recent patrols and akuma battles. In all of them, Ladybug was smiling and touching him. They had always been tactile during battles, but this... this was different. This was new.

"I don't know. Bring her cheese and ask very nicely for her to stop?"

"I... I don't want her to _stop_  necessarily," Adrien said, slowing his chair's rotation. "I just need to know what she's thinking. I don't want the line between reality and pretend to be anything but clear for her."

"Then talk to her," Plagg said.

"I tried to," Adrien said. "She looked so scared when she realized she couldn't remember. She still hasn't explained what that meant. And then she ran off."

"But you also said she was really glad you didn't hold back when you told her you weren't okay with kissing for the masses."

"Yeah, and that was good. But... something's changed."

Adrien resumed spinning in his chair until he was dizzy, and then started in on his homework, glancing up at the pictures every couple minutes as his mind wandered back to the confusing muddle of worry for his lady, worry she would accidentally break his heart, and the tiniest spark of hope.

"Wait," Plagg said, flying over to block Adrien's view of his tablet, half a piece of Camembert dangling from his paws. "Did you say that Ladybug actually forgot that you two are pretending to be a couple?"

"Yeah. That's weird, right? And it was after she disappeared for a couple days. She still hasn't given me even a hint of why she was gone."

"What was she like that day there was an akuma and she only showed up to purify it?"

"She looked tired, and like she was in a lot of pain. She also said she'd been staying in the dark, so maybe she had a headache?"

"No," Plagg muttered to himself around the piece of cheese. "Tikki wouldn't suggest that."

"Tikki, Ladybug's kwami?" Adrien asked. Plagg nodded and swallowed the rest of his cheese whole. "Wouldn't suggest what?"

"Nothing, kid," Plagg said. "Even if she did, nothing we can do about it now."

/*****/

"Tikki, what happened to all that black yarn I had? I just found a great pattern for leg warmers. I was thinking of starting my Halloween costume work early."

"I don't know," Tikki lied, thinking of the sweater that started it all. "Aren't leg warmers those bright colored things? Maybe you should use pink instead?"

"I'm using pink, too. Here, look at the pattern."

Marinette had just finished sketching out her entire costume design when an akuma alert sounded.

"Hawkmoth sucks, but fighting beside Chat Noir is the best! Spots on!"

/*****/

"What do we have this time, My Lady?" Chat asked, somersaulting off a roof and across the street to her side.

"Refrigerator repair man. My only assumption is that someone didn't give a pity laugh at a 'is your refrigerator running' joke."

They took the akuma down quickly (it was not one of Hawkmoth's more creative champions) and saw the gathering crowd, including reporters.

"Answer a few with me?" Ladybug asked. "Stay just a minute longer?"

"We only have three minutes left," Chat said.

"Long enough for me," she said, linking her arm through his.

Very quickly, the questions the reporters shouted turned to, "Can we get a kiss?"

Ladybug’s face turned a pretty pink and her eyes went wide. She looked up at him. Adrien had more than the average teenager’s experience with people looking at him like they wanted to kiss him, both for photoshoots with other models where the look was fake, and in real life with some over-eager fans. He could tell the difference between the real and the fake.

"Sorry, we're still saving that for when we're alone," Chat said, not breaking eye contact with Ladybug. He saw relief, confusion, and the tiniest bit of disappointment on her face.

"Just one kiss?"

"Nope!" Chat's ring beeped, and he had never been more grateful for being on a time limit. "Gotta run!"

He felt like the one running away this time when he saw the confused look on Ladybug's face as she swung off in the opposite direction.

/*****/

"I made you uncomfortable," Ladybug said instead of a greeting when they met up on the roof of Notre Dame.

"I don't think you meant to," Chat said, patting the roof beside him for her to sit with him.

"I'm still a little scrambled," she said.

"What percent recovered would you say you're at?" Chat asked.

"Ninety five? Ninety six? I feel perfectly normal again."

Chat nodded. "With a p-value of less than five percent, I guess that's reasonable confidence that you're better.”

"I won't run away again, Kitty," she said, ignoring his statistics joke and sliding her hand in his. "I'm sorry I did. Go ahead and say anything you need to say."

"Why are there things you don't remember?"

That wasn't the question he meant to ask.

"I... I forgot some things."

"It happened right around the time you couldn't be Ladybug for a few days. You knew something was going to happen."

"I don't know if I can tell you," Ladybug said.

"Why not?"

"I did something to keep us safe."

"What did you do?"

Ladybug closed her eyes and sighed. "I really wish I could talk to my kwami while I'm transformed sometimes. Ask her what she thinks is the right thing to do."

"Ladybug, whatever this is, I'm your partner. Keeping us safe is my job, too." He squeezed her hand. Her eyes fluttered but didn't open. "And the best way I do that is by trusting your instincts. So you should too. If you think you should tell me, I trust you. If you think you shouldn't, I trust you."

"I can't tell you everything because I don't know everything," she said. She opened her eyes and looked into his. "I had Master Fu remove one of my memories. Apparently, the memory of fake dating got tangled up and came out, too." Chat just stared at her, so she kept talking. "I don't know why. Which makes sense, because the point was to not remember. I did write myself a letter about why I did it. I felt I was making the right decision, and it sounded important. So, I guess... if you want to catch me up on the fake dating thing, that's what I really need. I need to know what we agreed to, and maybe even what I was thinking suggesting it, because it seems a little out there to me now." She laughed and ducked her head. "Whatever that memory was, it must have been pretty big to take all the pretend-couple related memories too, right?"

"I didn't even know that was an option," Chat said. "He can do that?"

"My kwami suggested it."

" _No, Tikki wouldn't suggest that_."

Adrien would have to talk to Plagg when he got home. Until then, he would do what he did best- help Ladybug.

"So, there's two things you need to know," Chat said, pulling out his baton and opening the little screen it hid. "What we've done so far that the public has seen, and what we discussed for boundaries." He started pulling up the Ladyblog, but stopped and turned to Ladybug. "Thanks for filling me in. We'll figure it all out, together. I know I do a better job when I have you."

Chat didn't bring up how flirty and affectionate Ladybug had been that night. She needed help filling in the gaps, and he could do that for her. And whether or not it was a good idea, whether or not he should, he needed to let her keep acting that way, just a little longer. A small, unhelpful part of him worried that if he pointed out the behavior, it would stop, and if it stopped, he would never get to experience it again. So he would wait. Just a little longer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Talk with me over at [cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com](https://cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com/) if you like :)


	15. Impatient (Race Through The City/Yoyo)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The battle against Hawkmoth takes an unexpected turn. Marinette realizes her feelings for her partner are different than she thought.

Later that night, Ladybug and Chat Noir were laughing over a video of what people on the street thought about LadyNoir when a call came in on Ladybug's yoyo.

"Hey, Rena, what's-"

"Get over here!" Rena interrupted. She had a wild look in her eye and the parts of her face not covered in her mask were pale. "Someone spotted Hawkmoth!"

"Are you sure?" Chat asked, leaning into Ladybug's space to be seen in the yoyo's camera. "We've had some nutcases in costumes before."

"Did those nutcases have a sword that could cut through concrete and were they able to run up the sides of buildings and jump over trees?"

The heroes jumped to their feet.

"Where are you?" Ladybug asked. She hooked her arm around Chat's neck as his arm slid around her waist without either having to say a word. He would transport them, she would keep talking to Rena.

"North end of the city. Just look for the panic and the screaming."

"Are you following him?" Ladybug asked.

"Yeah, just find me on the map and you'll be good."

"Okay, stay safe, don't engage 'til we get there," Ladybug said.

"Will do!"

"What is he doing?" Ladybug asked, holding her partner tight. "He's never broken his pattern before. He's never gone out himself."

"We should probably be on the lookout for an akuma, too," Chat said. "If I were him, and I left my lair for some reason, I'd send an akuma out ahead."

"Good thinking!"

Chat was right. They were three streets away from Rena's location when a banshee flew at them, white and screaming. The noise was even more eerie in the silence of the evacuated street. Rena had said to look for chaos and screaming. Abandoned cars, empty houses, and dropped possessions seemed chaotic enough, and the banshee was screaming, but the complete lack of normal people made the scene surreal.

"Ignore it!" Ladybug yelled over the wail. She and Chat had untangled from each other and both were racing in parallel.

"Take out Hawkmoth-" Chat started, dodging a solid wall of sound waves.

"-no more akumas," Ladybug finished.

The heroes rounded the corner to find the intersection a block down completely empty. No Rena, no Hawkmoth. Something was wrong.

"Rena should be just up there to the right," Ladybug said, looking at her yoyo again before snapping it shut and setting it spinning again.

"I'll keep an eye out for our ghostly friend," Chat said. "I've got your back, My Lady."

They moved as quietly as they could, sticking close to the buildings until they could peer down the side street.

Rena lay motionless in the middle of the road.

"No," Ladybug whispered, and everything around her seemed to freeze as her vision tunneled down to Rena, _Alya_ , hurt fighting a battle she was only ever meant to record.

"My Lady."

Chat's voice unfroze everything. Ladybug looked around, analyzing the scene and saw the banshee at one end of the street and a tall figure with a cane and a cowl at the other.

"We stick to the plan," Ladybug whispered. "Ready to end this?"

"Let's take him down."

Yoyo spinning, staff at the ready, the heroes of Paris ran at their foe.

He laughed and disappeared.

"Where did he _go_?" Chat screamed. "That was our chance!"

"Rena," Ladybug said. There was nothing they could do about Hawkmoth now. "The akuma."

"What do you want to do?" Chat asked. He ran his hands through his hair, visibly trying to reign himself in.

Ladybug looked around. Rena still hadn't moved. She was pretty sure that if she had died she would have detransformed, so for the moment Rena could wait.

"Take down the akuma, fast. Then we get Rena to the Guardian."

Ladybug called for Lucky Charm before Chat had finished nodding in agreement. A red and black old fashioned boombox landed in Ladybug's arms.

"Time to drown her out," Ladybug said. She pushed play and held the boom box over her head, letting a loud rock song blast out. The banshee shrieked again and covered her ears. Ladybug put it on one shoulder and used her yoyo to grab the banshee's ankle, tugging her closer to earth.

"Her handkerchief!" Chat yelled, already running towards her. Ladybug gave another tug on her yoyo and the banshee's hands slipped off her ears, her face screwed up in pain at the noise. Ladybug turned up the volume. Chat used his staff to vault up to the banshee. In midair he shouted, "Cataclysm!" and reached out to grasp the handkerchief. He let it go and did a somersault mid-air on his way down.

"No more evildoing for you, little akuma."

Ladybug purified the akuma and threw the boombox in the air, restoring the shattered glass everywhere. She didn't even pause to check on the victim, and knew Chat would cover that for her.

"Rena?" Ladybug reached out a hand to feel for a pulse. It was steady and strong, and Ladybug sagged with relief. "We're going to get you help."

Chat ran to her side as she lifted Rena into her arms. "I need to recharge my kwami," he said. "Yours needs cookies, right?"

"Yeah," she said. "Can you bring a few to the Guardian and I'll meet you there?"

Ladybug didn't care that it was her hero self, not her normal self walking into Master Fu's shop, knocking on his door, drawing attention to herself. Helping Rena was the important thing.

"Ladybug? You shouldn't- Rena?"

"Hawkmoth did something to her."

"Hawkmoth?" He held the door open and led Ladybug to put Rena down on the mat.

"Chat's on his way, I'm about to detransform," she said.

"Go in the back," he said. "I'll find something for your kwami."

"No, help Rena," she said. "Chat will bring something."

Ladybug felt her transformation wash away as she went to the back room. Tikki landed in her hands and looked around, figuring out where they were.

"What happened?"

"Hawkmoth came out to play."

Marinette explained everything to Tikki and then realized she would have to repeat the story for Master Fu in a minute.

"Ah, Chat Noir. Come in and transform, please," Marinette heard Master Fu say from the other side of the door. She had a near-overwhelming urge to throw the door open and see her partner. She closed her eyes and gripped the table in front of her.

"Are you okay, Marinette?" Tikki asked.

"Ask me later," she said.

"Ladybug? Cookies for your kwami," Master Fu said, handing a box through the door.

Tikki ate and transformed Marinette. Ladybug came to sit at Rena's side, stroking her hair as Master Fu worked.

"When she wakes up, I will need her to detransform," Master Fu said.

"I can leave," Chat said. He had been nervously pacing the whole time he had been there.

"No," Ladybug said, reaching a hand out to him. "Just sit here next to me, with your back to her. She'll be glad you're here."

Chat sat and Ladybug took his hand, holding tight.

Rena's eyes fluttered open a minute later.

"Ladybug? What happened? Where am I?"

"Rena? I am the Guardian of the Miraculous," Master Fu said. "I have healed you. Now I need to heal your kwami. Please detransform."

Alya sat up and detransformed, catching Trixx as she fell, unable to move.

"It's worse than I'd hoped," Master Fu said when Trixx was settled in the middle of the mat. "Rena, do you remember anything that happened?"

"Yeah," she said, crossing her arms. "I was following Hawkmoth. He managed to spot me and said I needed to be 'taken out of the picture' like some cliche comic book villain. I was about to call up an illusion when he hit me with... honestly, it looked like a smoke bomb. It was something small and when it hit me, it exploded into grey-green smoke and that's the last thing I remember."

"It's ancient magic," Fu said. "Meant to weaken your enemy long enough to complete your goal." He sat back and sighed. "I cannot heal Trixx, not fully. Only time will restore him."

"So, what can I do?" Alya asked.

"Go home, provide him with lots of apples, and do not transform unless it's a matter of life or death. Do not join akuma battles unless there is no other way. Come back here in a week so I can check on how Trixx's recovery is progressing."

Alya nodded and scooped Trixx up, holding him close to her chest.

"I'm so sorry," she said.

"You did wonderfully," Trixx said. "We'll live to fight again."

Alya left and Chat returned to pacing.

"So, Hawkmoth left the safety of his hiding spot," Master Fu said, pouring tea for the heroes.

Ladybug and Chat filled in Master Fu about their battle. He sat quietly for a minute after they finished.

"Hawkmoth is growing impatient," he said. "My guess is that he used ancient magic on the Fox because he could not use it on either of you. If he has access to that power, he could use it on you, defeat you, and get the Miraculous, but without healing powers like I possess, he would have to wait at least a year for your Miraculous to be usable again. He means to strike hard. We should prepare for more visits from him."

Chat left first while Ladybug waited in the back room for him to detransform and go. She detransformed and said goodnight to Master Fu.

"Marinette," he said before she could leave. "If Hawkmoth is impatient, he will make mistakes. You still have the upper hand. Your trust in your partner will be more valuable than ever now."

She nodded. "He means everything to me."

Master Fu nodded. "Get some rest, Ladybug."

Marinette didn't transform again until she was standing on the street next to her house, realizing that it was the middle of the night and her parents thought she was asleep upstairs. She pulled herself up to her balcony and dropped down into her bed.

"How are you?" Tikki asked, landing on a pillow in Marinette's line of sight.

Marinette started to cry.

"Oh, Marinette! Alya is fine, and Trixx will be soon! And you'll defeat Hawkmoth, everything will be alright."

Tikki flew around in front of Marinette, nervous in the face of such sudden emotional strain.

"No, it's not... I'm worried, but that's not it," she said, gasping between sobs. "Tikki, I... I don't think I'm cut out to be Ladybug."

"What? No, you are! Why would you think that? You handled the battle wonderfully, your priorities were good, it was the best outcome you could hope for."

"No, not..." She took a shuddering breath and sat up. "Tikki, I'm an awful person. I was so worried about Alya, I was, I still am. But..." She started crying harder. "But a part of me was just glad that it wasn't Chat lying there, not moving."

Tikki didn't know what to say. She grabbed a tissue and started trying to dry Marinette's tears.

"Tikki... Tikki, I think... I don't know where these feelings came from, but I love him. I love Chat Noir."   
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Talk with me over at [cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com](https://cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com/) if you like :)


	16. Time (Stars/Rose)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette finds something that reminds her of her partner. Ladybug and Chat Noir talk about what might happen when they finally defeat Hawkmoth.

"Tikki, what I had to forget," Marinette asked in the morning, "it wasn't that I had fallen in love with Chat, was it?"

"No," Tikki said. "That wouldn't have worked, anyway. Memories aren't where feelings are stored. And love is deeper than memory."

"But this... thing, it feels so sudden. I don't think I've always felt this way for him."

"Feelings change, love grows," Tikki said. "Are you going to be okay? You were really upset last night."

Marinette nodded. "I'll be okay. I'm going shopping today with Mom, that will get my mind off of last night."

The Cheng women walked around and window shopped (and did a bit of actual shopping) for a couple hours. It was exactly what Marinette needed.

"You've seemed so tired lately, I wanted to do something nice with you today," Sabine said as they walked towards home.

"This was very nice," Marinette said. "I've just been working hard on some sewing projects. Getting out today was just what I needed."

"It seems like more than that," Sabine said. "Things are okay with your friends?"

"Everyone's good."

"You're not worrying about this Hawkmoth business are you?" Sabine asked. "That's not something you need to think about. Ladybug and Chat Noir will take care of it. And Rena Rouge!"

"Rena was hurt in the fight last night, mom."

"Oh, that's awful! I hope she's better soon. She seems to work well with the other two."

They were almost home when they passed a cart selling flowers. Sabine stopped to get a bouquet to put in the window of the shop. Marinette was thinking of walking on and letting her mom catch up when something caught her eye. A red rose, as perfect as the one Chat had given her on a rooftop not that long ago.

On impulse, Marinette bought it, captivated by the color and form. Roses were so romantic.

"Is that for anyone I know?" Sabine teased as they walked up the stairs to the living room.

"No!" Marinette turned almost as red as her flower. She hadn't thought this through.

"Really? Not planning on seeing any classmates soon? Not even ones whose pictures are all over your walls?"

"Nope," Marinette said, her mind racing for an excuse. "Alya prefers Tiger Lilies."

Sabine laughed. "Okay, okay. I'll get you a little vase to keep it alive then, if it's not going anywhere any time soon."

Marinette spent the rest of the afternoon sewing to try and keep her mind from returning to that awful feeling from the night before. She sewed until the sun set and her eyes started to hurt from the lack of light in her room.

"Marinette, take a break," Tikki said, flipping on a lamp.

"Should I tell Chat how I feel about him?" Marinette asked, picking up the rose and spinning the stem between her fingers.

"You're only just figuring it out yourself," Tikki said. "And things are getting crazy with Hawkmoth. Give yourself time. Too much change at once isn't a good thing."

"You're right," Marinette said. She put the rose back and pushed away from her desk, stretching. "It's time for patrol anyway."

/*****/

"That was fairly uneventful," Chat said at the end of their route.

"I think it just helps for people to see us," Ladybug said. "Let them know we're here, doing everything we can."

"Definitely." Chat looked around. They were in a quiet area full of little shops, empty except for the last shopkeeper closing up. "Wanna sit for a bit?"

They sat, and Ladybug wasn't able to keep herself from sitting close enough for their hands to brush. He chuckled and slid his fingers between hers.

"What do you think comes after?" Ladybug asked.

"After? After we defeat Hawkmoth?"

"Yeah. Will we still be Ladybug and Chat Noir, and just help with more normal stuff? Should we retire? Will it be safe to reveal our identities? Should we go looking for other places with magical problems where we can help out on weekends or something?"

Chat shrugged. "Without Hawkmoth, there's still problems we can help with around here, but there's no big magical threat. I’d like to stay Chat Noir though, if we get the choice. I'd like to exchange some basic info, too, if you're up for it. You know: name, phone number, birthday, favorite color, idea of a perfect date." He winked and she giggled.

"I think I'd like that," she said, bumping her shoulder into his.

"We could go places together, out of costume," Chat said. "Museums, parks. Not even as a date, just as friends."

Ladybug nodded. A minute later she laid her head on his shoulder. "We could leave the city. Just go for a drive. See how our tastes in music match up. End up in the country. Stay out until we can see the stars. And just... be there, together, looking at the constellations. Knowing we've been through something together that only we and the stars know."

They were quiet until a nearby car alarm startled them.

"We should go check on that," Chat said, jumping to his feet. He pulled Ladybug up with him.

The car alarm was nothing, and Ladybug called patrol to a close. Chat raced home and dropped onto his bed without changing his clothes.

"Plagg, how do I know if she likes me?" Adrien asked. "And if she does, how do I know if it's real or just because fake dating gets confusing?"

"Give it time, Kid," Plagg said. "And give me cheese."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Talk with me over at [cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com](https://cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com/) if you like :)


	17. Slime (Catch or Fall/Rooftop Date)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chat and Ladybug have one of their "dates" and run into Hawkmoth on patrol.

"What flavor ice cream do you want?" Chat Noir asked, cartwheeling along the ridge of a roof as Ladybug walked along the slope beside him.

"Strawberry."

"Seriously? After last time?"

"I don't remember last time," she said, bouncing her yoyo like the toy it resembled.

"Right, right. One strawberry ice cream, coming up. I'll meet you in the park."

Something had shifted, Chat knew, since Hawkmoth had stepped up his game. Something in the way Ladybug looked at him. But he had misread and overestimated and analyzed to death so many times. So he hoped, and he soaked in every little touch as he always had; as if it would be the last one he ever received.

"My Lady," Chat said when he held out Ladybug's ice cream cone.

"Thank you, Kitty."

"You really think being seen like this more will draw out Hawkmoth?" Chat asked, catching a drip of mint chip with his tongue.

"The timing fits," Ladybug said. "He showed up only a couple weeks after we started 'dating', so it's worth a try." She looked down shyly before catching his eye out of the corner of hers. "Besides, this is nice."

"What, me bringing you ice cream and using all my worst flirting moves on you?"

"Spending time with you," she said. "Doing... normal things."

It was comments like that. Those were the things that made Chat think that if Ladybug really did feel differently towards him, it was only because the fake dating was making everything seem a little too real. After all, she did know his feelings were real, and saw how he acted towards her in their little charade. Maybe she was fooling herself, along with all of Paris.

"I love summer," Ladybug said when she finished her dessert, using a napkin to scrub the sticky drips of ice cream off her fingers. "What do you say we move this date in a rooftop direction and turn it into a rooftop date, Ladybug and Chat Noir style?"

"You want me to stick around for your patrol?" Chat asked, taking her napkins to throw them away.

"It's better with you."

He had said the same thing to her the first time he had seen her after her memory modification. Maybe they could do more paired patrols, if their schedules lined up. They were the best parts of his weeks.

Patrol was nearly over when they spotted Hawkmoth. At first it was surreal. All three froze, and Chat had almost convinced himself that he was hallucinating when Hawkmoth laughed and started running, leading them somewhere. He wasn't quite as fast as they were, and didn't seem to want to engage directly with them. It was like he was learning how they moved, and the feeling of being observed that closely made Ladybug's skin crawl.

Hawkmoth had made an akuma to distract them again, that’s where he was leading them. The Slime seemed to have no other goal than to coat everything in slime, but it made following Hawkmoth difficult. And gross. Hawkmoth hung around watching them fight, but didn't interfere. Whenever one or the other of the heroes would charge at him, Hawkmoth would run just far enough away that they couldn't get to him and keep The Slime in view. After a few tries, they stuck to fighting the akuma.

Chat tried using Cataclysm on the slime, but only a small area of slime turned to ash. The Lucky Charm was a bucket of salt water that they dumped on The Slime to remove enough of the sliminess coating him to be able to reach his akuma- a tissue box.

Before Ladybug could use the Miraculous Cure to clear the slime, before Chat could shout out a warning that Hawkmoth was leaving, the man that had been The Slime a moment before slipped on his own creation and started to fall. They were on the roof of an office building, several stories up. The man was headed for the edge of the roof and going too fast for the small safety railing to stop him.

Ladybug assessed the scene. She was standing in slime, if she caught him in her yoyo, she would be pulled along with him. Chat, however, was standing on firm ground.

"Chat, get ready to catch!"

Ladybug threw herself towards the victim, diving off the side of the roof as he fell. She ignored Chat's scream and stretched out her hand, ignoring the swooping feeling of freefalling this long. The second she had a hold on the screaming man she turned in mid air and threw her yoyo back towards the roof, towards Chat Noir.

He caught it. She felt the line tighten and sighed with relief for just a moment before tugging on the line to have it reel them back up. Ladybug and the man were slowly pulled towards the roof, being treated to a lecture for six or seven stories on safety and not scaring superhero partners as they got closer to Chat.

"Good catch, Kitty," Ladybug said when her feet were on solid ground again. She threw the now empty bucket Lucky Charm in the air and the slime was removed from the streets.

"Hawkmoth got away again," Chat said as they guided the victim to the roof access door. "And don't do that."

"It worked out," Ladybug said. "You always catch me."

Chat pulled Ladybug close. She was starting to realize that tight hugs were his default reaction to feeling like he was going to lose her. She didn't mean to scare him, it was all part of the job. His hugs made her feel safe, needed. She hoped they made him feel safe, too.

"I'm okay," she said, stroking his hair slowly. "You're almost out of time though."

"I don't care," he said into her shoulder.

"You'll see me for patrol tomorrow, and then you can hug me for as long as you need," she said, hearing her own earrings beep. "But we gotta go, Chat."

He squeezed her tighter for a second and stepped back.

"I'm holding you to that," he said.

"Was that a pun?"

"Maybe."

Chat stood at the end of the roof and extended his baton to the ground. He stepped into thin air and slid down it like a fireman's pole.

"My silly kitty," Ladybug whispered to herself. She snagged her yoyo on the antenna of the next building over and used it to fling herself into the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So uh... prepare for angst. That's all I'm saying.  
> Yell at me for said angst over at [cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com](https://cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com/) if you like :)


	18. Butterfly (Masks/Kiss)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette has an encounter with Adrien that helps make up her mind about Chat Noir.

"Again!" Ladybug screamed, stomping her foot. "We lost him _again_!"

"We were closer that time," Chat said, panting. "If he couldn't do that disappearing thing it would be a lot easier."

Ladybug's earrings beeped and she sighed. She was out of time anyway. Had Hawkmoth stayed a minute longer, it would have been Marinette trying to kick him in the shins instead of Ladybug.

"I'm down to seconds, I'll see you tonight," Ladybug said. She swung away and Chat was left alone on the roof with a terrified nine year old who just wanted to watch a movie that wasn't scary with his friends.

"Let's get you home," Chat said.

/*****/

"These near-misses with Hawkmoth are making me crazy," Marinette said, dropping into an alley a few blocks away, her transformation dissipating before her feet even hit the ground.

"He'll make a mistake soon," Tikki said, curling up in Marinette's open purse. "You just have to be more patient than he is. Think things through, take your time, make the right choice the first time, and you'll win in the end."

"When is the end though, Tikki?" Marinette asked, starting the long walk home. "I can't keep disappearing for hours at a time to track down a madman without questions being asked."

"It'll come soon enough. And at least it's summer! You aren't missing school."

"I know," Marinette said. "But I am impatient. I'm trying not to be, I'm trying to do what you keep telling me, but..."

"But you love Chat Noir," Tikki said with a little smile.

"I love him so  much," she said. "But I feel like I'm not supposed to tell him until we reveal, and we can't reveal until we get Hawkmoth, and Hawkmoth keeps-"

"Marinette?"

Marinette put one hand over the open top of her purse and spun towards the familiar voice.

"Adrien?"

"Hi." His smile was something she had missed seeing in person. The in-person ones were generally much more genuine than the ones on her walls. "Did you have errands around here? You're a bit far from home."

"Oh!" She looked around. There was nothing nearby that would be a good explanation for her presence. She didn't have shopping bags to say she had been buying things, either. "I went for a walk. I guess I wasn't paying attention to how far I went."

"Do you want a ride? You're on our way," Adrien said, gesturing to the car waiting for him down the block.

"Yeah! If you don't mind?"

"I wouldn't have offered if I did," he said, holding out his hand. She took it and slid into the car behind him.

"How has your summer been?" Marinette asked.

"Good! I'm still in fencing club, basketball, and Chinese lessons, and I just added a programming course. Nathalie's actually running it for about twenty kids. I never thought I'd miss her teaching, but I'm enjoying the class. How about you?"

"Lots and lots of sewing. And knitting! Here, I have pictures of my most recent projects." Marinette pulled out her phone and flipped through the pictures with Adrien. She found he had a terrible eye for fashion, which made her laugh, and he couldn't help but join her.

"Next time you and Alya plan something," he said, "call Nino, and I'll see if I can sneak out to join you guys. I miss everyone."

"Aw, we miss you too!" Marinette said as they stopped in front of the bakery. "Guess this is me. Thank you for the ride, Adrien." She turned to his driver. "And thank you, Mr... um..."

"Gorilla," Adrien said.

"What?"

"Mr. Gorilla."

"Seriously?"

"No, but it's what I call him."

Mr. Gorilla grunted in agreement.

"O...kay. Thanks, Mr. Gorilla. I'll make sure to set something up for the whole group soon. Bye!"

It was only when Tikki said, "That went well!" that Marinette realized what had just happened.

"I just... I just got a ride home with Adrien. I didn't stutter once. We held a real conversation. It was... nice."

"Maybe the past couple weeks away from him did you some good?"

"Maybe..."

"Or?" Tikki looked at her expectantly.

"Or..." She took a deep breath, letting the realization settle under her skin. "Or this is a sign that my true love is Chat."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah," Marinette said, feeling a smile tug at her cheeks until it hurt. "The idea of loving only Chat... nothing could make me happier."

"That's wonderful, Marinette!" Tikki got as sly a look as a tiny god of creation could have on her face. "You know... you don't have to wait until you reveal to confess. Love might make you two stronger, bring about Hawkmoth's downfall faster."

"Really?" Marinette asked. Tikki nodded. "Well, if the moment's right, I'll go for it."

"I'm so happy for you!"

They entered her room and Marinette looked around. She had taken down her Adrien pictures when Nino had stopped by to interview her for a documentary he was making (called "Akumas in Paris") and hadn't bothered to put them back up. Well, no real reason to now. She went to the hidden pictures and pulled out her three favorites. She added them with all her other pictures of her friends. Maybe when she managed to get Adrien, Alya, and Nino together, they could take some new pictures to add to her wall.

Marinette fed Tikki and then played video games with her dad until dinner. After they cleaned up, she worked on a shirt for Nino until it was time to patrol.

"I wish the flower was still all pretty," Marinette said, looking at the drooping rose in its vase.

"Chat Noir has loved you for a long time," Tikki said. "He'll just be happy you feel the same way he does."

"I hope so," she said. "Spots on!"

Ladybug all but flew to her meeting spot with Chat Noir. She was nervous, but she also knew he loved her. This was right. They were right.

"You're early, My Lady."

He dropped silently to the roof beside her. Her heart rate doubled and she couldn't have held back her grin if she'd tried.

"Hey, Kitty." She sounded breathless but she didn't care.

"You look happy," Chat said, extending his staff to lean on it. "Is it me? Did you miss my sparking purrsonality?"

"I really did," she said with a little giggle.

"Oh." He straightened up and a look of confused delight resulted a little smile, just for her. "You were pretty upset earlier."

"Hawkmoth? We'll get him," she said, waving a hand.

"Of course. With a team like us? Nothing can stop us for long."

They were a team. They had always been each other's complement. She couldn't wait any longer. This kitty needed to know just how loved he was.

"Hey," Ladybug said, reaching out to grab Chat's hand. "Can I say something?"

"Something good?"

"I think so."

"Then of course, Bugaboo."

His first hint was that she giggled at the nickname she usually hated. The second was the way she blushed and bit her lip. His heart sank. This wasn't real.

"Well, Kitty..." Her eyes dropped to their joined hands, and she started swinging them side to side a little. "I've realized lately that... That my feelings for you aren't the same as they were before. You've always been one of the closest people to my heart, but now... I love you, Chat Noir."

She looked up. His eyes looked... sad. His mouth was set in a determined line.

"You don't really feel that way," he said.

"What?"

He didn't repeat himself. It took Ladybug a minute to process his words. She could see from his expression, the hunching of his shoulders, the slight lowering of his cat ears, that what he had said wasn't good, but the words themselves meant something she hadn't expected, couldn't understand.

"Of course I do," she said. She ignored the sinking feeling in her stomach in favor of the buzz of confusion in her head. "Why would you say that?"

He shook his head and took a step back, but didn't pull his hand away. "No, you don't. I'm sure you think you do, but... Your feelings, they aren't real. In a little while, you'll see. I'm just your goofy partner. That's how you've always seen me, that's how you'll see me again."

"No! I've never seen you as 'just' anything. Chat, I love you." She stepped towards him, closing the distance he had made but feeling no closer. "You said you love me. Now I'm telling you that I love you, too. This is good! This should be happy!"

He pulled his hand from hers, tight fists falling to his sides and took two steps back. "I do love you. I love you enough that I can make myself tell you this isn't real. It's just the fake dating confusing you, making you feel the things you're pretending to feel."

"What? This has nothing to do with that!" Why was he doing this? She had expected him to be happy, for them to be able to share in that giddy feeling of loving each other. How had it turned into a fight?

"I know you think that," he said, taking another step back, "but you'll realize it soon. We'll cut back on the public dates. Answer fewer questions about us for the press. You'll see."

Ladybug felt angry tears starting to form, and tried to slow her breathing to fend them off. "Chat, I know what I feel is real. I know it."

He gave a sharp shake of his head and turned to face the nearest rooftop. "I can't do this, Ladybug! I'll patrol alone tonight. See you at the next akuma attack."

He left. Ladybug covered her mouth to muffle the sob she couldn't stop. She raced to get back home, to cry in the comfort and privacy of her room. People couldn’t see Ladybug like this.

Didn't he love her? Didn't he love her enough to believe her? Wasn't this what he wanted? Didn't he love her?

His love had been a constant since Chat had told Marinette that he loved Ladybug. The sun was warm. The ground was down. Chat loved her. But now? Now nothing made sense. Her love had upset him, made him reject her. Chat didn't love her. The ground was up. The sun was cold.

How had she made things so bad so quickly?

She landed on the merry go round in the park across the street from her house, within sight of the statue of the Heroes of Paris when the little black and purple butterfly caught up to her.

"Hello, Lovebug," said a gleeful voice in her head. "I am Hawkmoth."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Talk with me over at [cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com](https://cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com/) if you like :)


	19. Frozen (Confined or Trapped/Trust)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chat Noir tries to apologize to Ladybug and clarify what he meant during their fight. Ladybug isn't who he finds.

"Are you going to akumatize me?" Ladybug asked. She should feel... scared. Angry, maybe?

"Yes. I will give you the power to make everyone feel how real your emotions are. You just have to do a couple things for me in return."

"I'm not giving you my miraculous," she said.

"I understand, we can revisit that discussion later," he said. "For now, bring your partner to me."

She fought it. She would never betray Chat Noir. But images of Chat's face, echoes of Chat's words, telling her she didn't know how she really felt, the sight of him turning his back on her, ignoring the tears in her eyes and leaving...

It was only for a second. For the the briefest second she felt like punishing him for what he did.

But that was all the opening Hawkmoth needed. No one can be strong forever.

"Yes, Hawkmoth."

/*****/

Chat's patrol was quick and not particularly thorough. He stopped an in-progress bicycle theft and scared an alley cat (and definitely wasn't scared back when it jumped out of the trash can at him... definitely not). He was back at his starting point before he realized the image of Ladybug blinking back tears was burned into his mind.

He had to find her. He hadn't meant to hurt her, he just knew if he gave in, he would be taking advantage of her confusion. But maybe he hadn't handled it particularly well. It was all he had ever wanted to hear from her (other than her name, but that would have to wait), and it hurt to know it was all a fantasy that he had accidentally helped create.

Right, finding Ladybug. He pulled out his baton to call her, knowing that she probably wasn't still transformed. But he had to try anyway.

"Chat?"

She had picked up. There was a sniffle and his heart broke again.

"My Lady, I'm sorry," he said. "I reacted too fast. Can we talk? I think I hurt your feelings and I really didn't-"

"Meet me at the park," she said. She hung up.

Chat Noir bounced his way over rooftops to the park. The closer he got, the stranger people were acting. Something was off. At first it was just that every person was alone, no pairs or groups walking together despite the late hour. Then it was the number of people upset. A block from the park, every person he saw was crying. When he dropped from a tree to the fountain, he expected Ladybug to make herself known. Instead he just started noticing how many people were crying. They were incapacitated, sobbing on the ground. There had to be an akuma. That must be why Ladybug wasn't here.

Chat started running, eyes peeled for an akuma, Ladybug, or Hawkmoth. He called Ladybug again, holding the baton to his ear as he ran.

"Where are you? There's an akuma."

"I know," she said. "Head east. You'll see me."

So he went east. And he saw her. She stood in the middle of the street, yoyo spinning lazily at her side. She must have put their fight out of her mind because she stood tall and proud, the commanding force of Ladybug.

"Ladybug, any idea what the akuma's powers are?" he called as he trotted up to her side.

"She can make anyone she hits with her weapon feel what she feels. The strength of her sadness, her feelings of worthlessness, she uses those to overwhelm them, make them unable to do anything but cry."

"Wow, that's awful," Chat said. "I wonder what happened. What's her akuma name?"

Ladybug turned to him, her yoyo never slowing in its circle, and it was the dead, dull look in her eyes that hit him first.

"Lovebug."

Her mask was black and shaped like a butterfly. Her hair was frizzy, sticking out of her pigtails in places. He looked at the rest of her suit again and saw that he had missed that her spots had changed from circles to teardrops and broken hearts.

"No. No!"

"You hurt me, Kitty," she said, pivoting on her heel to face him dead on. "Now all these people know just how much."

"Ladybug, I didn't mean to-"

"I'm not Ladybug anymore," she said, shaking her head and taking a single step closer. Her yoyo picked up a bit of speed. "You know how this works. The little butterfly comes to visit and changes the name. Not Ladybug. Lovebug."

"You have to fight it," he said, pleaded, begged. He wanted to back away from her, run before the full weight of what was happening hit, but he was rooted to the spot. There was no escaping this.

"I tried," she said, her head tilting to the side. He saw one of her earrings, still red with five spots. Good, the akuma wasn't in there. He wasn't sure how he would have managed to break an ancient magical artifact. Assuming he could get it away from her. Assuming he could win in a fight against her. Assuming he could get his body to un-freeze.

"Try again. For me, please."

"I tried," she said. "But this is because of you. For you. I'm not strong like you, Kitty. In fact, you should get to feel it. Feel exactly how weak I am, how hurt, how broken."

She lashed out with her weapon and finally his limbs remembered their purpose. He dodged and she caught the end of her yoyo in her opposite hand.

"It was supposed to be our big moment," she said, flinging her yoyo almost carelessly towards him. "The two heroes, two halves of a whole, creation and destruction, good and bad luck, yin and yang. I finally wanted that. And you don't believe me? You tell me my feelings aren't real enough, aren't good enough?" She swung at him harder and he brought out his baton and split it in half, deflecting the end of the yoyo. She picked up the frequency of her attacks and he blocked every one, and that's how he knew she was going easy on him still.

"Ladybug, I'm sorry, I don't think I said any of that right, please, let me-" He worked a few feet of space between them and her attacks slowed.

"Why am I not good enough, Chat Noir?" she screamed.

This time she aimed her yoyo at someone coming to investigate the odd scene in the middle of the street. Chat managed to extend his baton enough to bat the yoyo out of the air. He didn't manage to stop her from whipping it back into his chest.

It hurt. Like someone had scooped out his chest and poured in a bucket of ice. The cold burned and breathing was impossible.

And then he actually felt it.

"Ladybug," he sobbed. He dropped to his knees, and then to his side, the pavement biting at his head. He sobbed her name, just her name, over and over. She didn't love him any more, did she? He had wanted to protect her, keep her safe, and here she was, sliced to her core because he couldn't keep her safe. Couldn't keep her safe from _himself_. He had done this. Made her feel this way.

Lovebug crouched down next to him. "Do you believe it was real now?" she asked, a hand running over his hair soothingly.

"Ladybug."

"We have somewhere to be," she said. He didn't care that she threw him over her shoulder. He didn't care that they were swinging through the city towards a small residential area. He didn't care that she stopped in front of a small house and knocked on the front door. He didn't care about anything but the aching taking over his body that was the absence of any small scrap of love he had ever felt in his short, sad life.

Chat was carried into the basement where Hawkmoth waited for them. If he could have cried harder, he would have.

"Well done, Lovebug. I have some things to prepare. See if you can get him to give up his miraculous willingly. It makes the transfer of power cleaner."

Hawkmoth walked up the stairs and Chat heard the door bolt shut.

"He wants..." Lovebug's face twisted. "I told him I wouldn't give him my miraculous. And I don't want to take yours." She sat next to him on the dusty floor. "That's not what I wanted." She reached over to run her fingers through his hair again. He shifted towards the sense of comfort, trying to fill that lack of love making his bones feel hollow. She pulled his head into her lap, petting his hair and scratching his cat ears. "I just wanted you to know how bad it hurt."

"I did this," he whispered, the words so garbled from his sobs and trembling he doubted she understood him. "How could I have doubted you? All I wanted was for you to love me. But if I let myself believe you, if you love me, that means you'll leave. If you love me, that means it's not going to last. If you love me... you're as good as gone already."

Lovebug sighed. "We're a mess."

"We're _in_ a mess," he said.

"I should have known I loved you when kissing you broke Dark Cupid's curse," she said.

It hurt more, Chat realized, that he had a spark of hope left. That tiny, shining light illuminated all the empty places inside him, and where the light touched, it seared white-hot. But he had that spark, and the spark was an idea.

"Try," he sobbed. "Just try, for me."

"I can't fight it," she said. "I told you. Hawkmoth's in control now."

Chat tried to pull himself up, but only managed to roll to the side, looking up at her, eyes too blurry from tears to see the details of her face.

"No. Try."

He was crying too hard now to communicate his one, last-ditch idea. Chat curled in on himself and waited to hear Hawkmoth returning.

"It was a nice kiss," she said, reaching for his hair again, soothing herself as much as him. "And I'm sure Hawkmoth isn't going to let either of us keep our miraculous long. You're not up for a fight." She brushed tears from his cheek and cupped is jaw. "Can I kiss you, Chat? One last kiss?"

He nodded. This had to work. This _had_  to work. He loved her. And if the pain he was in now was the pain she was in when he left her to patrol earlier... was it really an hour ago?

"I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough," she whispered.

And she kissed him, tears on both their cheeks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yell at me over at [cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com](https://cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com/) if you like :)


	20. Truth (Trust/Protector)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chat vs. Hawkmoth. The resolution of Ladybug's akumatization. Chat finds something in the basement to which Hawkmoth brought them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh WOW. Thank you all so much for the comments last chapter. I've had some huge moments of insecurity about this story. I'm glad to hear from so many of you that I'm getting across the story I wanted to tell. Thank you <3

Nothing changed. Their lips met and nothing changed.

At first.

When Ladybug's lips met Chat Noir's, she still felt numb and empty. Kissing him was nice, but she wished she was kissing him because he wanted her to kiss him, not as some sort of dying wish type scenario. Then he reached a hand up to stroke his thumb over her cheek, mindful of his claws as he wiped away her tears and started kissing her back. She pulled back and let out a shuddering breath, her forehead resting against his. He sat up and pulled her against his chest, kissing the top of her head.

"Thank you, My Lady."

"Lovebug," she whispered into his chest. She wasn't sure why she cared what he called her.

"Thank you, My Love?"

She laughed. "But I'm not your love," she said. "That's what got us in this mess. My love wasn't enough, so now I'm not your love."

"I was selfish," he said. "I was confused. I was scared. A scaredy cat, you might say. But My Lady..." He pulled back to look her in the eye. "I was wrong."

He waited for her to realize on her own. She had just said the thing about Dark Cupid, after all.

"You... you're not crying," she said. "Did it wear off? Or did..."

"I love you, My Lady," he said, brushing her hair back and grinning. "And you love me."

"You're free," she said. He wasn't incapacitated anymore. There could be a fight, they might have a chance! She didn't realize that the kiss had brought back some of her rational mind until much later. "We can't let him get our miraculous. I told him I wouldn't give mine up. He still wants me to get yours... I can feel him, but I don't know how much he can tell what I'm doing right now."

"If we release your akuma, will you be able to-"

"You can halt that line of questioning," Hawkmoth said, appearing at the top of the stairs. "I'll admit, I did not know that True Love's Kiss would work on those controlled by an akuma outside of Dark Cupid's love-related curse. But no matter. Lovebug, take your partner's miraculous."

She shook her head. "No. I told you from the start, I don't want to do that."

"You only mentioned yours, not his," he said. "If you don't take his power..."

She refused to cry out in pain as a jolt went through her, but she couldn't help flinching, curling in on herself.

"Stop!" Chat yelled, knowing words were worthless. He grabbed his baton and held it up, ready to strike.

"I have prepared for this day," Hawkmoth said, his aura of calm never wavering. "I will defeat you. I know how you move, how you think. I know that while she's in pain-" He nodded at Lovebug as she curled farther in on herself, a hand over her mouth to muffle a whimper. "You will be distracted."

Chat Noir charged at Hawkmoth, done with letting him monologue. He swung towards Hawkmoth's head, shifting his stance so he could strike out at his knees and try to knock him down. Instead, Hawkmoth blocked the baton with his cane and lashed out to kick away Chat's attempt to sweep his legs. They were evenly matched.

Chat and Hawkmoth fought as Lovebug fell to her knees, hand muffling cries as well as whimpers now. The pain steadily increased, and she knew with each passing second how much worse it would be a second later. She wondered if calling Lucky Charm would work while akumatized. But even if she got something useful, there was no way they could defeat Hawkmoth, take his miraculous, get out of the locked basement, and call the authorities in under five minutes. She would have to wait. Lovebug looked at the yoyo clutched in her hand, wondering how they were going to get out of this mess.

And then the pieces started to fit together.

"Leave him alone!" she screamed, her volume mostly to appease the pain. She leaned heavily on a wooden chair, pushing herself to her feet.

"Give me your miraculous," Hawkmoth called over his shoulder as he continued to fight Chat. "And I'll at least give him a rest."

Lovebug flung her yoyo at Hawkmoth's back. If she could overpower Chat, a miraculous holder, with sadness, then it should work on Hawkmoth.

Or would have, had his lightning reflexes not allowed him to duck, the weapon soaring harmlessly past his shoulder. He pivoted and used the momentum to try and hit Chat Noir with his cane.

"That's enough of that," Hawkmoth said. He held out one hand, the other still using the cane to deflect Chat's attacks. A purple butterfly emerged from Ladybug's left pigtail ribbon and flew to Hawkmoth's hand. He backed up from his fight and popped the top of his cane open, tucking the butterfly inside before resuming his attacks.

Ladybug felt the extra power pulled from her, like all the water in her body evaporating out her skin at once. She was brought to her knees again as she regained her hold on the situation. She was surprised for the second time in her life that she remembered what had happened.

_Apparently if the akuma is recalled and not purified, your memories stay_ , she realized.

"Let's end this, Kitty," Ladybug said. "Lucky Charm!"

Hawkmoth grinned, raised his staff and said, "Fly Away!"

A key fell in Ladybug's hand and Hawkmoth, once again, vanished.

"Now we know how he keeps doing that," Chat said, walking over and putting his head down on Ladybug's shoulder. "You okay, Bug? It looked like you were in a lot of pain."

She nodded and clipped her yoyo to her waist so she would have a free hand to run into Chat's hair.

"Where do you think he went?" she asked.

"Anywhere but here, apparently."

"Where is 'here'?"

They looked around the basement. It was mostly empty except for a dining room table and chairs, a row of boxes along one wall, and a washer and dryer.

"You didn't know where you were going when you took us here?" Chat asked. Then he turned his head to look up at her. "Wait, do you remember?"

"I remember everything. Of tonight, anyway." She broke eye contact to stare at the key in her hand. "He gave me directions, I didn't know where I was going or why until we got here."

"We keep getting closer," Chat said, an arm coming around her waist in a loose hold. "Even after the mess I made of everything tonight, we almost had him."

"It was my mess," Ladybug said. "I didn't want to be patient. I didn't listen to what you had to say. I let myself-"

Her earrings beeped, startling them both.

Ladybug sighed and held up the key she strongly suspected belonged to the basement door. "We should both go home, get some rest, and meet up tomorrow."

"I'm going to stay and look around a bit," Chat said. "Hawkmoth must have some connection to this place if he had you bring me here, right?"

"Or he saw a house whose occupants are on summer vacation."

"Worth a look though, right?"

Ladybug gave a small smile. "Let me know what you find tomorrow at patrol?"

He nodded. Ladybug climbed the stairs and unlocked the door, peeking into the hall before looking back at her partner to wave goodbye.

"Ladybug?" Chat climbed the stairs until he was on the one below her.

"Yes?"

"Can I kiss you again? For real this time? No akumatization or magical overwhelming emotions between us?"

She nodded, and he thought the shy look on his brave Lady's face might just possibly kill him.

He kissed her. No tears this time, but both of them still quite a mess. Her lips were soft and she let him put an arm around her waist again, her fingertips making small circles on his scalp again.

"No matter what else," Chat said when he pulled away, "know that I love you."

"I love you, Kitty."

She kissed his nose and left.

Chat started his investigation with the washer and dryer, both empty and unplugged. He quickly checked the table and chairs for anything of interest and found nothing. The boxes were a little more interesting.

"Mom?"

Pictures of Emilie Agreste stared up at him from the first box.

Chat ran upstairs and looked around the rest of the house. He ran down familiar halls, past familiar doorways, and up to a familiar bedroom. In the closet, behind a loose baseboard was an envelope written with his mother’s handwriting.

This was his mother's childhood home.

Adrien knew who Hawkmoth was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Talk with me over at [cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com](https://cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com/) if you like :)


	21. Regret (Sacrifice/Common Interests)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien deals with what he found out about Hawkmoth.

Chat sat on the floor of the empty closet in the mostly empty house for a while. Longer than five minutes, he was sure of that, so he couldn't call Ladybug. He decided to open the envelope, though he knew what he would see. It was his mother's version of a time capsule or scrapbook. Every year she had put in her school picture with the date written on the back. As she got older, she added pictures of her friends, boyfriends, the occasional letter detailing her life at the time. The last three pictures were of her wedding, Emilie and Gabriel at the hospital when she gave birth to Adrien, and Adrien's first day of school. She had showed it to him when visiting her parents a few years ago, before they moved. Gabriel had bought the house when Emilie said it would break her heart for it to go to strangers. They had rented it out a few times, but it had been empty since his mother went missing.

Adrien detransformed when he got to the end of the envelope.

"Where are we?" Plagg asked.

"My mother's childhood home," Adrien said, staring at the closed envelope in his hands.

"Why?"

"Plagg, did you know?"

"Know what? Is this about Ladybug again? I told you that I can't tell you."

"Did you know that..." Adrien felt Plagg's paw on his cheek and he realized he had started crying. "That my father's Hawkmoth?"

"What?"

Adrien had never seen Plagg so serious.

"Is that why Master Fu chose me? Because Hawkmoth was someone close to me?"

"No," Plagg said. "No, he would never do that on purpose."

"I have to go see him," Adrien said, shoving the envelope back in its hiding place.

"Your father? No! Stay somewhere else. I don't want you risking it."

"Not him," Adrien said, walking towards the front door. "Master Fu."

/*****/

Adrien banged on Master Fu's door for two straight minutes.

"While it's always a pleasure to see you," Master Fu said as he held the door open to Adrien, "I was asleep. You seem upset though, so I assume this couldn't wait?"

"I'm done," he said, taking off his ring and holding it out.

Plagg didn't have time to speak, Adrien barely saw his confused, hurt look before he vanished, the ring turning black in his hand.

"Come sit down," Master Fu said. "I'll put on tea."

"No, I don't want tea," Adrien said. "I'm done. Take it."

"Adrien, you are Chat Noir. Ladybug can't fight alone."

"Get a new Chat Noir," he said. "You found me fast enough."

"Adrien, training a new Chat Noir will take time-"

"I don't care," Adrien said, setting the ring down next to the phonograph.

"Adrien, what happened?"

"You mean you don't know?" Adrien asked, crossing his arms. "You always seem to know something."

"You're angry. I understand, and I know I'm mostly to blame. I hid a lot from you, at first. You don't have to tell me what's wrong, but please sit down for a cup of tea and calm down before you walk home without the protection of a miraculous."

Adrien started down at Master Fu for a minute, set on leaving. For the first time though, when Adrien met Fu's eyes, he saw no ulterior motives, no chess pieces moving, only concern for him.

"Okay." Adrien said, shoulders sagging. He let Master Fu lead him to the table and watched him go about preparing tea. By the time they each had a cup in front of them, Adrien felt ashamed he had directed his anger at Master Fu.

"Hawkmoth is my father," Adrien whispered a few minutes later. Saying it out loud the second time didn't hurt any less.

"Oh."

Adrien's anger started to flare back up until Master Fu spoke again.

"Had I known, I would not have chosen you and your Ladybug. I would have found another pair. Not for your skill. Not because I think you can't do this. But because this is not a fair battle for you to have to face. This should not have to be your fight."

"That's not... I don't want someone else to have to fight it," Adrien said. "But... he's my father. He's the only family I have left."

"And by doing this, your father has betrayed some of your deepest-held values."

"Yeah," Adrien said, staring down into his tea.

"I do have to ask," Master Fu said after a silence thick with swirling thoughts. "If you give up your miraculous, will you be at peace with this decision down the road?"

"What do you mean?"

"If you pass off the responsibility of Chat Noir to another, will you regret it? Even assuming the fight goes perfectly, no one is hurt, Ladybug and her new partner are able to defeat him quickly and without any risk to their identity. Will you regret not being the one to bring your father to justice? Not being the one at Ladybug's side to see your mission to its close?"

"No," he said immediately.

"Okay. Then I will pass along your miraculous in the morning. Would you like a cookie? A friend made them."

Master Fu placed a box of cookies from Tom and Sabine's bakery on the table.

"You know the Dupain-Cheng's?" Adrien asked.

"They're very kind people."

Something about the thought of Marinette (who had acted so different in the car earlier!) and her loving parents sent a wave of... it wasn't shame, exactly, or fear, but it crashed over him. The perfect, heart-shaped sugar cookies seemed to mock Adrien.

"If I pass on my miraculous," Adrien said, still staring at the cookies before him, "I'm being a coward. This has always been my fight, even before we knew who Hawkmoth was." Adrien stood and strode to the phonograph, picking up the ring. "I can't abandon Ladybug. I can't abandon this fight, or the city, or Plagg, or... or myself."

"It is your decision. Only you know your right path."

"If anyone is going to bring down my father, it's going to be me."

Adrien slid on the ring.

"I knew you couldn't leave me for long!" Plagg said, crossing his arms and turning his back on Adrien. "Your life without me would be boring and lonely. I'm the most fun you've ever had!"

Adrien reached up to cup his hands around Plagg and gently turn him around.

"Yeah, you are," he said, his smile apologetic.

"I love reunions," Master Fu said.

"So, we have a plan yet?" Plagg asked.

"No," Adrien said. "I don't even know where I'm going tonight. It's late and I don't feel safe going back... there, with him."

"I have a very comfortable couch," Master Fu said.

There must have been something in the tea, because despite how much Adrien's mind had to dwell on and obsess over, he fell asleep within minutes.

/*****/

In the morning, Adrien thanked Master Fu again and headed out. He didn't have a full plan, but he did know the next step was getting in contact with Ladybug.

Adrien transformed into Chat Noir and started running. He ran all of their patrol routes, he ran down on the streets through annoyed pedestrians, he ran through parks and finally found himself sitting on a cross beam of the Tower, waiting. There was no way Chat Noir ran around for that long without word spreading to everyone in the city. So his Lady would be on her way.

He just hoped Hawkmoth wouldn't get there first.

"Hey there, Kitty," Ladybug said, landing next to him. "I didn't expect you to be out so early. Aren't cats nocturnal?"

"Hey, My Lady," Chat said, reaching a hand up to pull her to sit next to him.

"No cat pun?"

"Not today."

"Is this... is this about last night?" Her fingers twined together in her lap and she couldn't look him in the eye. "I was akumatized. I almost cost us everything, cost everyone everything, because I let my feelings get the better of me."

"Ladybug," Chat said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "You're human. And everything turned out okay. Better even." He leaned closer, a shy smile on his face. "You let me kiss you."

He watched a steely look take over her eyes before she leaned in and kissed him.

It was wonderful. He didn't know how every kiss they shared was better than the one before, but some of the weight of the night before lifted when her lips met his.

"Ladybug, I would like nothing more than to keep kissing you," Chat said, threading his fingers with hers. "But I have to tell you something."

"Anything," she said.

"I know who Hawkmoth is, and I have to be the one to take him down."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At this point, please view the prompts as suggestions/themes. I'm just writing whatever the story needs at this point, I hope you don't mind <3
> 
> Talk with me over at [cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com](https://cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com/) if you like :)


	22. Answerless (Quarrel/Cuddles)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team puts into motion their plan to take down Hawkmoth.

"Okay," Ladybug said. "You can take the lead. But... why?"

"I can't tell you. But it's something I need."

"Okay. Who is he?"

"Gabriel Agreste. The fashion designer."

Ladybug stared at him. "We suspected him before. What makes you so sure?"

Chat Noir explained that he recognized some of the people in the pictures in the house and that had led him to the conclusion that Hawkmoth was Gabriel Agreste.

"So you don't know who he is for sure?"

"I know, My Lady. Remember how convenient it was that Gabriel was akumatized right after we suspected him?"

"We never really looked at him again after that," she said. "And his son. His son has never been akumatized, even though everyone around him has."

"It's him." He took a breath. "So... what do we do?"

"We do what he failed to do: plan carefully and make no mistakes."

They decided they needed everyone together. Ladybug left to get Rena Rouge, and Chat stopped to get cheese for Plagg before heading back to Master Fu's. Rena and Ladybug arrived and the four of them though it through, considered every side of the issue of which any of them could conceive, and ended up in a fight about it.

"What about his son?" Ladybug asked. "Doing this to him isn't fair!"

"He'd prefer it over the other options, but it's not about him!" Chat said, working hard not to raise his voice. "The most important thing we need to do is ensure this man can't do this again. This is the only way that doesn’t kill him that also guarantees he can't hurt anyone."

"May I speak to you, Chat Noir?" Master Fu asked.

They stepped into the back room and Chat crossed his arms.

"You know that if you choose this path, you will never get the answers you seek."

"Like I said, it's not about me. I can live without answers. I can't live knowing there's a chance he could try something like this again someday."

Master Fu nodded and they returned to the main room.

"I have to agree with Chat Noir," Master Fu said.

"So do I," Rena Rouge said.

"It seems cruel!" Ladybug said.

"And you'd know that personally?" Rena asked. 

"Yes!"

"It's three to one," Chat said. "You told me you'd let me take the lead."

She moved to stand in front of him, face to face, so closer her chin tilted up to look him in the eye.

"You're sure? Knowing everything we know, knowing his son, knowing what I've experienced?"

"It's the only way."

The heroes agreed on the rest of the plan and split up. Chat's job was to get everyone else out of the house.  He sat in a tree and watched through his father's office window, magnifying the scene with his baton. After some fiddling, he found the settings to pick up sound from the room as well.

"Nathalie, any word?"

"Adrien is not with any of his friends, and the police have no leads at the moment."

"When did he leave? Did you pinpoint that?"

"No one in the house saw him after dinner."

Gabriel slammed his hand on the desk. "Where is he?!"

Nathalie made an excuse and left the office, but Chat Noir could see that her hands were shaking.

Chat dropped from his hiding spot. He slipped on a disguise and rang the front gate bell.

"Hello?"

"Delivery. I need a signature from Ms. Sancoeur."

Nathalie, suspecting nothing, came to the front gate. She didn't notice that there was no package with the delivery man until he looked up and she saw his mask.

"Chat Noir?"

He grabbed Nathalie and took off, vaulting across the city and ignoring her screams (he was aware she didn't like heights, but this was war) until they got to a secluded park.

"Gabriel Agreste is Hawkmoth," Chat said. "Stay here until it's safe."

Adrien had known Nathalie for a long time. They spent hours together every day while she homeschooled him. He knew that the surprise on her face was fake.

"You knew."

It was an accusation, not a question.

"He keeps the miraculous under his tie. The kwami's name is Nooroo. There are missiles, bombs, and possibly other traps set up in his lair."

Chat nodded. She would cooperate, he knew that, but he would never forgive her.

He took her phone and wallet so she wouldn't have an easy way back and ran back to his tree vantage point.

He detransformed and called the Gorilla, saying that he was across town at an ice cream parlor. When the car left, he called the other heroes.

"Nathalie's safe, and I didn't see anyone else in the house." He told them what Nathalie had told him.

"Then we don't let him get to his lair," Ladybug said.

The heroes entered the house (Chat Noir had more knowledge of how the security system worked than was normal, but no one commented on it, minus Rena's cat burglar joke) and each went to their spots.

Next came Rena's part.

"Gabriel?"

Emilie Agreste stood in the middle of the front hall.

"Gabriel?" she called, louder this time.

"Emilie?"

Gabriel stood in the doorway of his office looking like he'd seen a ghost. Maybe he had. Adrien would never know now if his father knew more about what happened to his mother.

"Emilie!"

Gabriel ran to her, but she took off up the stairs, a look of panic on her face. She led him down the hall, and he didn't notice the clutter in the way until he tripped.

This was Chat Noir's part. He reached out as Gabriel fell, faster than anyone could have believed, and snatched the miraculous from his throat when he was too busy falling to notice the action.

Gabriel got back to his feet and followed his wife further.

Right into Ladybug's path.

"It's over, Hawkmoth."

Gabriel's face turned to rage as Rena's illusion of Emilie vanished. He reached for his tie, started saying his transformation phase. Ladybug flicked out her wrist and her yoyo collided with his head just hard enough to knock him out.

"Chat, you got it?"

He stepped out of the shadows and held up the miraculous.

"Let's get him to Fu's."

/*****/

Rena helped carry Gabriel as far as she could, then left because her time was running out from her use of illusion. She told Ladybug to update her as soon as she could, and went home, an exhausted Trixx to tend to.

"Come in, before someone sees you," Master Fu said, holding the door open as they maneuvered the tall, unconscious Gabriel into the shop. They laid him on the mat in the middle of the room and stepped back.

"You're sure?" Master Fu asked Chat Noir.

"Do it."

Master Fu stood behind Gabriel's head, placed his fingers on his temples, and started chanting. His fingers began to glow.

Master Fu began removing all of Gabriel's memories of the miraculouses.

Ladybug, unable to watch, turned and buried her face in Chat Noir's chest. His arms came up around her, but he was unable to look away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More than a few nods to "A Witch's Familiar" by Metawohoo. Nathalie's fear of heights is the only one I can say without spoiling things. AWF is the fic that made me move from liking the show/fandom to loving it. It also fed my love of Nathalie, which was honestly like feeding a monster. I love her. If you've read my Lukadrien June you've seen that for yourself. (Or if this is some point in the future and I’ve posted one of the projects I’ve been working on for MONTHS like Spot and the Kitten or Take Me Home, you REALLY know.) Anyway, it's great, go check it out.
> 
> Talk with me over at [cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com](https://cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com/) if you like :)


	23. Belief (Pain/Tail)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chat Noir confronts Nathalie and finds out he might get more answers about what his father was thinking than he originally thought.

"It's finished," Master Fu said. "As I warned you, he will remember very little of the past few years. There were many attached memories. It is best you get him to a hospital. The pain of this large a modification will be severe."

The heroes carried him together again, leaving him in the emergency department with no explanation.

"We should bring Adrien here," Ladybug said.

"The hospital will make sure he knows," Chat said.

"Okay. We should head home, then. I'll see you tonight."

"Ladybug? We should talk. A lot has happened, and..."

"We'll talk, Kitty," she said, lacing their fingers together and pulling him a step closer. "Hawkmoth's not a threat anymore. I think it's about time we met without the masks. What do you say?"

"I... I want that. I want it so much. But Ladybug... we've been through so much. Can it wait a few days?"

She pulled him even closer, her eyes soft behind her mask. "Something's not okay, is it, Chat?"

He shook his head. "It's not. But I can't talk about it yet."

"Are you sure you should go home?" she asked. "I don't want you to have to go back and pretend you're alright around a bunch of people who don't know about the superhero stuff."

"I'll be okay. I think I need some time to myself, if that's okay."

"That's always okay," she said, going up on her toes to kiss his cheek. "I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Of course, My Lady."

They stayed facing each other, hands interlocked for a minute more.

"We should go," Chat said.

"I can't," she said.

"My Lady, are you flirting with this tomcat?"

"You're the one flirting with me, Kitty."

"I'm always flirting with you."

"No, I mean, your tail. I can't go because of your tail."

Chat followed Ladybug's eyes to her waist. His tail had wrapped around her at some point and held her close enough that she couldn't, in fact, get away.

"It's a sign, we should stay here together forever."

Ladybug laughed and kissed his nose. "Silly Kitty."

They untangled themselves and Ladybug swung off towards home. Chat went on a search for someone in particular.

"Chat Noir," Nathalie said when he found her sitting on a bench on the path between where he had left her and her apartment.

"I can give you a lift home now," he said.

"I will absolutely not be allowing you to carry me again. Do you have my wallet and phone?"

He handed both over.

"I assume you would like to talk. I'll call for a cab and you can come with me to my apartment."

He nodded and sat next to her on the bench.

"You haven't seen Adrien Agreste, have you? He's been missing. I wouldn't be surprised if his disappearance had something to do with his father's... whatever went down today." She frowned. "Is Gabriel still alive?"

"He's alive. If that changes, it wasn't something we did."

"Should I worry about my own safety?"

"I think that depends on what you plan on doing."

"So you're here to attempt to threaten me?"

"No," Chat said, shaking his head. "I'm here to find out where you stand."

She was quiet for a minute.

"You never answered my question," she said. "Is Adrien safe? I won't take this discussion further until I have your word that he is and will be safe through all of this."

"He's safe," Chat said. "I saw him with my own eyes. And I'll keep him safe as best I can."

"Okay," she said.

She called for a cab and on their way to her apartment she called for food for them both (and the cab driver politely didn’t ask why Chat Noir was accompanying her). When they arrived, she excused herself to change from her work clothes and arrived before him in yoga pants, a t-shirt and a hoodie with her hair down. He barely recognized her.

"What do you need to know?" she asked.

"What do you plan to do now?"

"That depends on what you did to Gabriel. Did you turn him over to the police?"

"No. No, they can't handle this. There's no system in place for magic-based crimes."

"Good. Smart. Okay, what did you do?"

"We... erased his memory, basically."

"Oh." She looked surprised. "That's... extreme, but understandable. Should I worry that you'll do this to me as well?"

"Again, depends on you. We had hoped no one else was in on his plans, but that was our mistake."

"I know everything about him. Spend all day with him. And you didn't think that I would know?"

"No one knows about me. No one knows about Ladybug."

"No? There's no Guardian who knows who you are?"

Chat went silent. If they weren't careful, Nathalie could be their mistake on the level of Gabriel's mistake of using a house to which he was connected.

"So you're worried that I might remind Gabriel of his mission, help him acquire new power?"

"He can't ever have that level of power again," Chat said.

"I agree. I was helping him because I agreed with his reasons, and I couldn't care less about his methods. I see your side of it, though."

"What were his reasons?" Chat tried to keep his tone even, but if he had a way to find answers without Gabriel, he was going to leap at them.

"He wanted to combine the power of the miraculous to bring back his wife from wherever she was. I was friends with her." She gave Chat Noir an evaluating look. "We might be able to reach a deal."

Before Chat could ask what kind of deal, the food arrived.

"I hope you like Italian."

Not remembering the last time he had eaten, Chat was just fine with Italian food. They ate in silence for a few minutes before Nathalie returned to her deal idea.

"The most important thing with memory removal is ensuring the subject is unable to find anything to piece together what is missing. Gabriel is an angry man, a power loving man who values control. That will not change just because he has lost his memory of what made him that way. He will search for answers, and because he is a paranoid man, he will find them. He left himself a journal in case anything like this happened. I know where it is."

"What do you want in return?" Chat asked.

"I also know where the Peacock Miraculous and a book related to miraculous magic are."

“Seriously?” he asked. She nodded. "Okay, again, what do you want?"

"Leave my memories alone and let me leave the country. I have other methods, slower, but with no impact on innocent bystanders, to find Emilie Agreste. Let me leave and try to find her, and I will send you the information you need before Gabriel can get to it."

Chat and Nathalie laid out the details of getting her a flight and how she would tell them what they needed and he left to confer with the rest of the team.

"I hope you find the answers you're looking for, Adrien."

"I should feel surprised," he sighed, letting his transformation drop. "Do you know the others?"

"I only figured you out from the way you ate, picking around the cheese."

He nodded. "I'll talk to the others."

"I know you may never forgive me, Adrien," she said. "But please know that I tried to do what I thought was best."

"I don't believe that," Adrien said with a shrug. "And I don't think you do, either."

Adrien went home and called the Gorilla, letting him know that he was home and fine and would see his father the next day.

"I thought you said you had to contact the rest of the team?" Plagg asked with a mouthful of cheese.

"In the morning," Adrien said, crawling into bed.

Somehow, the empty house made it easier to sleep than Adrien had expected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Talk with me over at [cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com](https://cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com/) if you like :)


	24. Misused (Rescue/Love Letter)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here, have your reveal.

The team quickly agreed to Chat Noir's suggestion to let Nathalie leave on the condition that she had no contact with Gabriel ever again in exchange for the information she had. Master Fu accompanied Nathalie to the airport and Chat and Ladybug went to the empty Agreste mansion to wait for Nathalie's instructions.

"Ladybug?"

Chat had been quiet and nervous. She wanted to ask what was wrong, but he had asked for time alone last time she saw him, so she didn't want to push him beyond what was comfortable.

"Yeah?"

"Before we find this, I have to tell you something." He frowned. "I have to... You don't have to, but I need to reveal who I am to you."

"What?" She ran through any possible reason why Chat would need to reveal himself before finding Gabriel's notes. There was one reason, but... that couldn't be it, could it?

"You said you wanted to reveal," he said. "Is now okay?"

"Of course," she said. "If you want me to, I will too, but I can wait."

"I absolutely want you to as well," he said, reaching for her hand. "Ready?" She nodded. "Claws in."

Ladybug burst into tears. She was hugging him and sobbing and he wasn’t sure what was going on until her transformation fell as well and familiar pigtails became… familiar pigtails?

“Marinette?”

“For a second, I hoped it wasn’t you,” she gasped between sobs.

His heart sank. “Why?”

“You shouldn’t have to be the one doing this and the one it happens to.”

It wasn’t her clearest sentence, but he understood. To be the one behind the mask and the one dealing with the fallout of the superheroes’ choices was not something small.

She pulled back and frowned at him. Her tear streaked face and furrowed brow and pink lips and red, unmasked eyes were beautiful.

“You pushed for him losing his memory,” she said.

“I know. I needed him to not be a threat. And I selfishly wanted him to come home after.”

“Even though you knew how scared I was when I realized I was missing things? Even though you’ve already had to help me along, tell me things I should know? Even though it means you have to fix things at home in addition to as a hero?” She brushed his hair back from his forehead.

“I know what he did is wrong. I know better than most. We’re the only ones that have been there for every single person he’s used. He deserves worse than this, if you ask me. But…”

“He’s your father. You’re allowed to love him. You’re allowed to want him safe. You’re allowed all your feelings, Kitty.”

The nickname was what finally broke him, made everything real. He clung to her and cried. She led him to a couch and they sat there together. Just, together.

“I couldn’t think of anyone better to be behind your mask, My Lady,” Adrien said in the silence when they had cried themselves out.

Marinette blushed spectacularly.

“I’ve loved you for such a long time, and I’ll admit, I’ve imagined you as different people, created stories in my head of who you were and what you were like.” He reached over to cup her cheek. “None of them, not a single one, is as good as you.”

“Well lemme tell you, buddy, Marinette's had a crush on Adrien for a long time,” she said, a tiny smile on her face.

“Did you just call me ‘buddy’?” Adrien asked, wrinkling his nose. “Wait, did you just say you had a crush on me?”

“Uh, yeah,” she said, twisting her hands together. “Kind of a big one."

Adrien cupped Marinette's face, slid his fingers into her hair, and pulled her gently forward until he could kiss her.

"Lady- Marinette," Adrien said, "I know we have more to talk about, but-"

The office phone rang. The one Nathalie was supposed to call.

"I guess it'll have to wait, Kitty," Marinette said. She leaned over and kissed him again before pulling back and turning red again. "I never thought I'd get to do that."

"I hope we get to do that a lot, My Lady." He winked and answered on speaker phone.

"Hello, Chat Noir," Nathalie said. "Behind your mother's portrait in the safe is a key. The code has been changed since you last got into it, it's now 769389. That key opens a box hidden behind a loose baseboard in-"

"In the closet on Mom's side of the room."

"How did you know?"

"That's where mom always hid things."

Nathalie also gave them instructions to destroy the digital copies of the Grimoire.

"Ladybug, maybe you should be the one to read the journal, if you decide to at all," Nathalie said. "It's... It shows the progression of his mental state quite clearly. Chat Noir, if you think that might be upsetting for any reason-"

"Ladybug knows who I am now," Adrien said. "I think that might be a good idea." He looked up at Ladybug across the desk. "You don't have to read it either, if you don't want," he said.

"Adrien," Nathalie said. "Good luck. I'm sorry for my part in all of this. And please tell your father..." She sighed. "Tell him I'm sorry. Nothing more."

"Okay. Goodbye, Nathalie."

"Goodbye, Adrien."

They followed Nathalie's instructions for the computer, and then found the box. They took it to Adrien's room and sat together on his bed, the box between them. It contained a journal, the Peacock Miraculous, and a handful of keepsakes.

"Plagg?" Adrien asked, holding the miraculous in his hand. "How did you not recognize this?"

"There's fakes and replicas all the time," Plagg said. "Haven't you seen all the people wearing Ladybug earrings lately? Besides, why would I have suspected your dad?"

"You're Plagg?" Marinette asked.

"You're the cookie girl," Plagg said. "Good, it's about time. Where's-"

Tikki flew out of Marinette's purse like a bullet, knocking Plagg back a foot in the air.

"I missed you too, grumpypants."

The kwamis introduced themselves and Adrien became secretly jealous that Marinette's kwami was so sweet and nurturing.

"So... what do you want to do now, Kitty?"

"Well... Let's start by making sure none of the other things can help my father fill in the blanks."

They left the picture of Emilie, dried rose, and movie tickets from Gabriel and Emilie's first date, and took the Tibet travel brochure, sketches of the miraculouses, and a single sheet of paper with sketch that was clearly meant to be improvements to the Hawkmoth supersuit. They returned the box to its hiding place, returned the key to the safe, and sat with the journal between them on the bed again.

"I think I'm going to try to read it," Adrien said. "And if it gets to be too much, I'll give it to you."

"Can we read it together?" Marinette asked, squeezing his hand.

"Together," he said, leaning his head on her shoulder.

The start of the journal was Gabriel's quest to find the miraculous. They agreed quickly that Master Fu needed to have this journal when they were done with it. Then the entries became almost a lab notebook detailing each akuma's powers, their dominant emotions at the time they were akumatized, what caused their downfall, and how successful they were. It was so clinical. Adrien started flipping through the book faster, finding specific akumas and then flipping further. He noticed it getting harder to breathe, but he had to keep looking.

"Okay, that's enough," Marinette said, slipping the book from his grasp. As she moved the book, folded papers fell from the last few pages.

"What's this?" Adrien unfolded one and found a love letter.

"Wow," Marinette said, reading over his shoulder. "He really loved her."

The letter was Gabriel's heartbreak. Emilie was gone and he didn't know what to do. He was looking for a way to find her, and reassured her on the page, the only place he could, that he would find her.

Adrien unfolded the next one. It was dated a few months later. Gabriel had a plan and wrote of his methods to find the miraculous and use them to find her, somehow. His love of her, his desire to do anything to get her back, was poured onto the page and the last few words were broken by drops of water, probably tears.

The next letter was about finding the Butterfly Miraculous. About the plan to draw out and capture the Cat and Ladybug Miraculous and wish her back. He mentioned the equivalent exchange and said that if he had the choice, he would offer himself. She deserved her life more than he deserved his. Marinette almost took the letters away at that line, but Adrien still seemed calm, so she left him alone.

The letters started to include rants. His desire to recover his wife turned into his desire to have the power to recover her, turned into a desire for power.

Adrien couldn't process that this was his father. On one level, it made too much sense. On another, he still remembered his father from before. He had been warm and loving, if easily distracted by and absorbed in his work. He would invite Adrien to see what he was sketching, show him how to drape fabric for different types of pieces, let him work on his homework in his office. His parents had been happy. That man couldn't be the one who went on a seven page, hand written rant about having the power to do anything he wanted within his grasp and how much he deserved it. Marinette didn't let him finish the stack of letters, taking those, too.

"How?" Adrien felt like he would fly apart at any second. He was hyperventilating, he could tell, and didn't know what to do about it. Didn't know what to do about any of this.

"How could he be like this?" Marinette asked, pulling him close and stroking his hair. "I don't know. He had so much. He was so much. I just know that you aren't like that. You're so good, Adrien. I know you are."

He hadn't realized it was part of his worry until she had already soothed it. He wasn't like that. He would never let himself become like that.

"The miraculous aren't meant to be misused," Tikki said, landing on Adrien's knee. "It can magnify parts of who the holder already is, the parts they display most while using it. If you are using the miraculous for selfish reasons, using it to hurt people, it magnifies that and it creates a feedback loop."

"The good thing is," Plagg said, "he might slowly go back to the way he was before without that influx of... bad feedback?" He looked to Tikki who shrugged and nodded.

"That doesn't make up for what he did to you though," Marinette said.

"Of course not!" Tikki and Plagg said in unison.

"I'm not sure if it feels better to have that hope," Adrien told Tikki.

Marinette looked Adrien over, and made a decision.

"Come on," she said, holding out her hand. "We're going to my house for lunch."

Adrien had no objections. The warmth of the Dupain-Cheng residence sounded wonderful. The second he stepped foot in the bakery he felt his shoulders relax and the hand that Marinette wasn't holding unclench.

"Mom, I'm making us lunch, you want anything?" Marinette called as she pulled Adrien across the room.

Sabine was not about to let Marinette get away with running off with Adrien, especially when-

"Are you two holding hands?" she asked, piling treats into a box that Marinette knew would be going home with Adrien that afternoon.

"Yes," Marinette said, tugging Adrien towards the door.

"Is there something going on between you two?" she asked, eyes glinting.

"Mrs. Cheng, may I date your daughter?"

Marinette choked. Tom poked his head out of the kitchen, eyebrows raised.

"I like her a lot. I would do everything in my power to make her happy, and I would really like if-"

"Of course you can," Tom said, dusting his hands off on his apron.

Sabine nodded, handing Adrien the box of pastries. "You've proven you're a good, responsible young man, and so long as you two treat each other right, we couldn't be happier."

Adrien thanked them repeatedly until Marinette pulled him up the stairs.

"I thought she had a crush on Chat Noir now?" Tom asked.

"I thought so, too," Sabine said. "They look happy though."

Marinette and Adrien ate lunch and played video games for a couple hours (until Marinette determined that Adrien looked better) and then they made their way to Master Fu's shop.

"Come in," he said. "I've just put on tea."

"We've come to drop off the miraculous and Gabriel's notes," Marinette said, pulling them out of her bag.

"Ah, good," he said. He took the book and put it on a shelf. "I'll look it over and share with you anything I find that is relevant to the miraculous." He opened the phonograph and took out the box of miraculous. "I believe I have just the holders for these," Master Fu said, holding the Butterfly Miraculous in one hand and the Peacock Miraculous in the other. "And they might be convinced to help with one last detail of the public story of defeating Hawkmoth."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Talk with me over at [cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com](https://cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com/) if you like :)


	25. Predecessors (Touch/Take the Lead)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien visits Gabriel in the hospital. Ladybug falls asleep on Chat. The new Peacock and Butterfly holders make an appearance.

Adrien went the next day to visit his father in the hospital.

"Adrien," Gabriel said, reaching out a hand to him. "I was told you were missing right before I came here. And your mother is missing. And that Nathalie had handed in her resignation a few days before I ended up here. Something about an opportunity in Italy. Is this true?"

Adrien had the chance now to steer the narrative. He couldn't control everything, but maybe he could get his father to see this as a wakeup call.

"Mom's been missing for a couple years," Adrien said, taking a seat next to his father's bedside. The lights were off and the door to the private room was closed, muffling the noise. "Nathalie did leave yesterday, she couldn't delay. She said she's sorry."

"And you, Adrien? Where were you?"

"I was... I ran away. From you."

"Why?" Gabriel stopped and removed his glasses, shaking his head slowly. "I'm sure the doctors told you I can't remember. And if you were running from me, you probably do not wish to discuss it with me. But I don't know, and it seems I have no one else to ask."

"We've been disagreeing on a lot of things. I've felt... stifled. Boxed in. Father, you've gotten so cold. Mom being gone is hard on both of us, but I still need you."

Gabriel was quiet for a while. "What happened with your mother? No one will tell me."

"She was just gone one day. There were no leads. I can help you find the private detectives you hired when it happened. Talking to them might help."

"Yes. Yes, in a few days, when I'm stronger."

"How's your head?" Adrien asked.

"I don't want you to worry about that."

"I'll worry anyway. Might as well let me know how much to worry."

Gabriel considered this, then nodded.

"Because my memory is missing along with the head pain, head trauma was naturally suspected, but no such injury shows on any scan or examination. A psychiatric diagnosis has been considered, and the words 'difficult personality' and 'narcissist' have been thrown around excessively. Do you know of any major stress in my life that might have caused this?"

"No," Adrien lied. "Just normal work stuff. Maybe it was Nathalie leaving."

"I wish she would pick up my calls," Gabriel said. "At the very least she should answer if we were-"

Was Gabriel Agreste blushing?

"You two weren't involved," Adrien said. "I can be oblivious, but I would have noticed that."

"That's reassuring." His tone was sarcastic but he couldn't hide all the relief he felt making his rigid posture falter for a moment. "It doesn't explain her sudden departure though."

"All she told me was to tell you she was sorry."

Adrien and Gabriel chatted for a few minutes, Adrien showing him a few of his recent modeling photos on his phone. Adrien left, promising to come back soon.

The moment he was in the stairwell he pulled out his phone.

"Hey," Marinette said. He heard her sewing machine in the background. "I'm working on a present for Nino, and you're about his height, any chance you can stop by today?"

"I think he only talked to me that long because I'm the only person around," Adrien said, the first tears falling down his face.

"Where are you?" she asked, and he heard the sewing machine turn off.

"Leaving the hospital," he said, wiping his face as he walked past people in the entrance.

"Meet me on the roof. I'll be there in a minute."

Adrien found a spot to transform and hopped up to the roof, waving at windows on his way up the side of the building.

"Hey," Ladybug said before she had even slowed to a stop. "What do you need?"

"Can we just go somewhere? Just the two of us?"

She kissed him and grabbed his hand. "I'll follow you anywhere, Kitty."

"I think that's my line, My Lady."

They ran hard and fast. For a while they ran part of their patrol route, but their eyes were on each other instead of the city below. They swept around some favorite landmarks before settling on the beams of the Eiffel Tower, out of breath and leaning on each other.

"When was the last time we patrolled?" Chat asked as Ladybug slid down on her back, her head cushioned by his leg.

"We were supposed to the night I was... you know."

"Let's think of it as the night you showed me how much you love me?"

She smiled up at him. "You're too kind to me, silly Kitty."

They stayed there a while, watching the clouds above and city below. Ladybug had almost fallen asleep when Chat Noir spoke.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Anything," she said, blinking hard and stretching a little.

"Did you really have a crush on me? Other me?"

Had her hands not flown to cover her face, Ladybug would have seen a twin blush on Chat's face.

"Yes. I can't believe you never guessed. I was so awkward around you."

"I suspected," he said. "I think I didn't want to think you liked me, because I loved Ladybug and you- other you, was someone I never wanted to hurt or disappoint."

Ladybug reached up to boop his nose. "I think it all worked out splendidly," she said. "You're my favorite person, you know? It's nice not having to keep that thought to myself any more."

"You're too kind to me, My Lady."

He leaned down and kissed her, gently and softly and she melted a little.

"Do you want to talk about seeing him?" she asked when he pulled back.

"I really don't," he said. "We have to go see Fu and meet these new people taking the butterfly and peacock soon."

"How soon?" she asked.

He flipped open the screen on his baton. "A little over a half hour."

"Do you want to just... nap here?"

"Both of us? No, I think we'll fall and die. If you want to though, I will accept my fate as human pillow. In fact, I welcome it. It's my new vocation in life."

"Talkative pillow," she said, turning on her side and placing a hand just above his knee.

"Just sleep, My Lady," he said, running his fingers through her pigtails, mindful of his claws.

/*****/

"Come in," Master Fu said when Marinette and Adrien arrived. "If you would like to be transformed before our new teammates arrive, I suggest doing so now."

They transformed and helped set up tea and some pastries Marinette had stopped to get from her parents. They were just setting everything on the table when a knock sounded.

"Welcome," Master Fu said when he opened the door. "Please make yourselves-"

He was cut off by a short young woman hugging him with enough force to knock him back a step.

"It's been so long! We've missed you! Even Grumpypants here." She stepped into the room and clapped her hands together. "You two have the cutest outfits! We've been following you on the news since the beginning, you're so talented for first timers!" She tugged her companion into the room and he put a hand on her shoulder, giving her a look that she met with an overly-sweet smile that only made him frown. "I'm Bridgette Cheng, the previous Ladybug, and this is my grumpy fiance, Felix Greyling, former Chat Noir."

Adrien recovered from the windstorm that is Bridgette and stepped forward to shake their hands. "It's so nice to meet you! You two were masters of avoiding cameras, there's so little on your work as heroes. Mr. Greyling, I'd love to ask you a few questions if you have the time today."

"It's Felix," he said. "We'll see how much time we have."

"We'll have time," Bridgette said, that too-sweet smile back.

"Please, sit," Master Fu said.

Pastries and tea were shared and Bridgette and Ladybug started talking about how Tikki was doing. When they paused, Felix turned to Chat Noir.

"Is Plagg still a little shit?"

"Yes. Yes he definitely is."

Adrien felt that a bond was forged in that moment.

"Felix, you will hold the Butterfly Miraculous for your mission in Germany," Master Fu said. "And Bridgette, you will hold the Peacock. Your kwamis are excited to meet you."

"If we could put that off," Bridgette asked, "I'm a bit worried about this whole plan involving Felix."

The group went over the details of the plan. Felix would transform and akumatize a willing Master Fu. With Nooroo's cooperation, Felix would look the same as Gabriel's Hawkmoth. The team would "take down" "Hawkmoth" and the akuma and tell the city that they were safe and Hawkmoth was taken away by a secret group that they couldn't disclose.

"But you'll be using your powers against him," Bridgette said. "I don't know about you, but I'm not a fan of having Cataclysm used on me. And some of those Lucky Charms can be horrifying. I got a knife once. Just, a knife. There was nothing to cut. I didn't use it. Was I supposed to stab my enemy? Because I didn't."

"I remember," Felix said, smirking. "I had to take him out with my claws, if you remember. A knife would have been quicker."

"We won't use Cataclysm on you," Chat said. "And if the Lucky Charm is anything dangerous, we won't use that either. Just... resist and fight back for a while, then let us defeat you and rip off your miraculous somewhere high up so no one can see who you are."

"You're sure this is safe?" Bridgette asked. "What about Master Fu's akumatization?"

"I will make a terrible akuma," Master Fu said. "I have every time I have been akumatized."

So the plan was set. The next night after dark, Felix would start "terrorizing" the city. Chat Noir managed to get two or three questions out before Felix insisted he and Bridgette had to head back to their hotel and get to know Nooroo and Duusu.

"Marinette," Master Fu said when she detransformed. "If you would like your memories back, I preserved them. You had discovered Chat Noir's identity."

"I knew it!" Plagg said. "There was no other reason that Tikki would ever suggest that!"

"You could have asked me, Plagg," Tikki said. "I would have told you why she did it."

"Guessing is more fun."

"Is the process the same?" Marinette asked. "Awful headache and tiredness for days?"

"Similar, but usually shorter."

"Can it wait?" she asked. "Maybe until after everything settles down for Adrien?"

"Of course," he said. "Any time you want."

The heroes said their goodbyes and Marinette linked her arm with Adrien's on the sidewalk.

"Walk me home, Kitty?"

"Actually..." Adrien scuffed the toe of his shoe against the sidewalk. "Do you want to see if you and Alya and Nino can sleep over? The Gorilla will be there, so we won't be unsupervised. It would just be really nice not to be alone tonight."

"If my parents don't go for it, we could move it to my house?"

"Actually, I like that idea even better."

/*****/

"I love the train!" Paon squealed when she looked in the mirror at her super suit that night. "It's so pretty! I loved being Ladybug, but this is wonderful, too."

"You were made for power, my little Slytherin," Felix said, smiling at her unnerving red eyes. "And we're different people now. It's been years. Of course you pair better with a different miraculous now."

"Shut up and suit up, Butterfly Man," she said.

"As you wish, My Lady."

"But I'm not your Lady any more," she said as Felix stood to join her in front of the mirror. "What will you call me now?"

"Maybe My Little Bird? LB for short?"

"Hmm. We'll work on it," she said, her gloved hand patting his cheek. "Transform! I wanna see what you'll look like normally, when you're Greyling and not Hawkmoth."

"I really don't think it's wise to use my last name as my hero name, dear."

"Transform!" Paon literally bounced on her toes.

"Wings rise, Nooroo."

A swarm of butterflies enveloped Felix at the end of his transformation. As they scattered, they revealed a fitted purple top and black leggings. He had ankle boots with pointed toes and a slight heel in a dull grey and the outline of butterfly wings on his back in the same grey. His mask was black and the same shape as it had been as Chat Noir. Little antennae stuck up four or five inches from his slicked-back hair. He had a low-slung grey belt as well, wrapped around twice like his Chat Noir tail, but no such appendage came with the accessory. His cane was exactly the same as Hawkmoth's.

"Hot," Paon said, stepping closer to him and grabbing him by the belt. "Not exactly the same as that fun tail, but I'll make due, I'm sure."

Greyling set the cane against the hotel room dresser and pulled Bridgette into his arms, ignoring the white butterflies that settled on both of them.

"So, we're really doing this again?"

"Just for a few months. No more than two years," Paon said. "Take down that magical drug ring at the source and then it's back to retirement."

"Retirement, huh?" Greyling brought his hand up to run his thumb over her cheekbone and noticed a butterfly wing pattern on the back of the glove as well. "And do you think that retirement 2.0 will be time to try for a little Bug?"

"I think it might be," she said, grinning up at him.

Neither noticed the small black butterfly free itself from the top of the cane and fly out the open window.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Talk with me over at [cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com](https://cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com/) if you like :)


	26. Reakumatized (Undercover Date/Freefall)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The public defeat of Hawkmoth is hard on Ladybug and Chat. A press conference brings up questions. An adrinette date leads to Marinette overthinking, which leads to some problems.

"Chat. Chat!"

He was frozen. Or, maybe he was moving and the world around him was frozen.

"Kitty, sweetie, I need you to tell me what's wrong."

Ladybug stepped into his line of sight and Chat was able to draw a deep breath again.

"Can you hear me?"

"I... it's... seeing him." That was more coherent than he expected.

"It looks like him, but it's not," she whispered, her hands raising to frame his face. "Remember? It's not him. This isn't Hawkmoth, it's Greyling."

"My akuma will defeat you!" Felix gave a flourish of his cane to accompany this. Their "battle" had barely started. Master Fu had been turned into The Grumbler and was going around with his walking stick, hitting people with it. When hit, the person would turn into a copy of him and sit down wherever they were and start meditating. He had been right, he made for a terrible supervillain.

"And he's a giant ham that can't act," Ladybug said with a chuckle. "We should have told him to be quieter."

"No," Chat said, shaking his head between her hands. "That's good, actually. That sounded nothing like him."

"Can you do this?" she asked. "It's okay if you can't, we can find another way."

"You'll be by my side?" Chat asked, his hands coming up to grip her wrists. She nodded. "Then I can do anything."

"That's my strong Kitty," she said, brushing his hair back. "Ready?"

"Ready."

She stepped back, and this time, Chat could see the differences. His father didn't hold himself like that. His father didn't have to muffle laughter when Chat's kick failed to connect. His father didn't mutter encouragements and suggest improvements in fighting form mid-battle. This wasn't his father. They had already defeated him.

They removed "Hawkmoth's" miraculous on the roof of Notre Dame, Felix being far enough from the eyes of the crowd that his identity would be safe with only a jacket hood protecting his face. Rena Rouge created an illusion to disguise him, and the heroes took their "prisoner" off into the night.

They released Felix in a dark corner and wished him and Bridgette well. Chat held his fist out to his partner, his eyes on Felix’s back. She didn’t respond.

“You okay?” Chat asked, turning to see Ladybug leaning heavily on the wall behind them.

“He asked who you were,” she said, closing her eyes. “When I was akumatized. He asked, and the only reason I didn’t tell him is because I didn’t know.”

Chat leaned on the wall next to her, waiting for her to come to him, if she wanted to.

“Good thing we didn’t know then,” he said.

“Good thing.”

/*****/

The next day they held a press conference.

"Hawkmoth has been defeated," Ladybug said. "His miraculous has been returned to the right hands. The man who was Hawkmoth has been handed to the proper group to deal with. We cannot name this group. The defeat of Hawkmoth was a team effort, and I would like to thank-"

Chat stopped listening to Ladybug's speech about there. He had helped her write it the night before, after the "defeat". His job was to smile and look pretty. He was good at that.

One of the first questions after her speech threw them off. "Who was that akuma the other night that looked like Ladybug? We never got a statement and lost track of the fight after the akuma carried Chat Noir off. We never saw Ladybug on the scene at all."

The heroes exchanged glances. They hadn't talked about how to address Ladybug's akumatization to the press.

"She was defeated when Ladybug did show up. She asked for privacy, and we're respecting that," Chat said. The relief on Ladybug's face was brief but strong.

When the press questions had died down, the Mayor said a few (read: many) words before declaring the day before an official holiday for the city, Miraculous Day. Chat zoned out again, but it sounded like _another_  statue was being commissioned of them. Oof. When the Mayor finally finished speaking, Chat was beyond ready to get out of there.

"Ready for our date, My Lady?" he asked, a little too close to a microphone.

"Chat Noir! Will this date be as superheroes, or have you two revealed your identities?" yelled Alya from the crowd.

"Uhh..." He glanced at Ladybug and her wide-eyed expression matched the one he felt on his own face. "No comment! Have a nice day!"

They took off, overcome with a fit of giggles.

"I guess this is now officially a fake date," Chat said as they landed in an alley together.

"But we really are dating now," Ladybug said, detransforming. "So it's a real date."

"But we're going on a date as Adrien and Marinette," he said, detransforming and grabbing her hand. "And the public knows about it. So wouldn't that make it fake?"

"How about..." Marinette pulled him close and kissed his nose, "it's an undercover date?"

"It sound so sneaky," he said. "But we're right out in the open."

"Exactly." They entered the movie theater and ordered snacks, settling into a row of the mostly empty theater.

"Are you seeing your dad later?" Marinette asked as she handed him the popcorn.

"Yeah. He has more questions. I'm a little nervous about keeping up two lies now: his supervillainy and being Chat."

"Does it help that you didn't know for most of the time? Can you think back on what you thought at the time, instead of what you know now?"

"That's what's been carrying me through this," he said. The credits started and he leaned his head on Marinette's shoulder. "Do you think he really can get better? That stuff Plagg and Tikki said about misusing a miraculous amplifying the worst parts of you?"

"I hope so," Marinette said, shifting to put her arm around him. "You deserve the best father in the world."

"Guess I'll have to marry you and share yours then."

They froze. Plagg started cackling from his shirt.

"I said that out loud, didn't I?"

Marinette was bright red and unresponsive for the rest of the credits and into the first five minutes of the movie. She had to ask Adrien to explain what was going on when she tuned back in.

When the movie ended, the awkwardness had disappeared. They went for a walk in the park, hand in hand with equally goofy smiles on their faces. Eventually they ended up in front of the bakery, and it was time for Adrien to see his father.

"I still can't believe I'm dating Ladybug," he whispered in her ear as he hugged her goodbye.

"Text me when you're headed home?" she asked.

"Of course, My Lady."

/*****/

Gabriel looked better, more color returned to his face and his expression pinched in pain less frequently.

“Are you dating your classmate, the one whose parents own a bakery?”

“How could you possibly know that already?” Adrien asked. He was barely in the room and Marinette hadn’t even told the other girls in class beyond Alya yet.

“I have my ways. I didn’t know you two were close.”

“Her best friend is dating my best friend, we see each other all the time. She sits directly behind me in almost every class. We were in that gaming competition together until I dropped out. I helped translate when-”

“I was not questioning you,” Gabriel interrupted. “Merely expressing surprise. Are you happy?”

Adrien couldn’t remember the last time his father had asked that.

“Very.”

“Good.” After an awkward pause, he asked, "What can you tell me about the heroes and the villain they recently defeated?"

"Ladybug is so cool," Adrien said. He started in on a rant about her as only a lovesick fool can do. He eventually remembered to mention Chat Noir and Hawkmoth before circling back to Ladybug.

"Do you think Hawkmoth may have been involved in my injury or accident or whatever it was that led to my hospitalization?" Gabriel asked.

"Oh, no, I don't think so," he said, scratching the back of his neck and trying not to look nervous.

"But I was brought in by Ladybug and Chat Noir."

"Oh, yeah, you were. I just... assumed it was a mugging?"

"But my wallet was still on me when I arrived. That's how they identified me."

"Oh."

"I saw the recording of the fight with Hawkmoth, and the press conference this afternoon. I don't remember anything about the miraculous at all. I remember a lot of my work of the past few months, but absolutely nothing about the one thing everyone in the city knows."

"Minds are mysterious things," Adrien said.

"Yes, they are."

Adrien didn't like the suspicion in his father's eyes, so he distracted him with more work talk. He didn't have any photoshoots scheduled any time soon, so he asked about setting one up. Gabriel insisted that was useless until he got "a new Nathalie" and they started looking into replacement assistants.

Adrien left that afternoon wondering if keeping his father from finding out his own past would be harder than he thought.

/*****/

Marinette went up into her room and texted Alya. They hadn't given any details to their friends about how they got together, and it was making Reporter Alya a little crazy.

Alya: did he at least say what about you he finally noticed?

Marinette thought about this. Did he say what it was he liked about her? Even just a minute ago, he said he couldn't believe he was dating _Ladybug_ , not Marinette. What did he like about the super-less side of her? _Did_  he like the super-less side of her? She thought back over their date. He had even called it a "fake" date since it wasn't with Ladybug, hadn't he? But she _was_  Ladybug! But did he see it that way? Her thoughts spiraled from there.

Marinette was a strong person, even before her miraculous. She was also human, and part of being human is having feelings. Doubt, fear, sadness, anger, self-esteem issues are all normal, and she told herself over and over afterwards that she did nothing wrong, that feeling bad things does not make her bad person, it makes her a real person. But it took her awhile to get there.

When the butterfly landed on the elastic holding her pigtail in place during a spike in those feelings, it didn't do anything at first. It sat there, waiting, while she continued to try not to cry. It had only needed an opening to attach. Now, even as her feelings started to even out again on their own, it just had to keep waiting.

"Marinette? Isn't it time for patrol?" Tikki asked, flying over to her. She saw the look on her face and reached out a paw to her cheek. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she said, wiping at the tears that had gathered in her eyes but not fallen.

"Marinette, something's wrong," Tikki said, feeling the energy in Marinette the second her hand touched her face. "Don't transf-"

"I'm fine, I swear! I just have to..." she sniffled a little, "to ask Chat a couple questions tonight. Spots on!"

Two transformations washed over her, and she felt a bolt of panic when she saw the spreading black-purple crawling over her skin.

"Spots-" She tried to call off her transformation.

But it was too late.

"Ladybug?" a voice in her head asked.

"Hello, again, Hawkmoth. You called me Lovebug last time."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So! I worked in Felix and Bridgette last chapter! And forgot to talk about it in the notes on that chapter! I love them, and I shamelessly dove at the chance to include them. If you ALSO feel that the PV kids are wonderful, you should definitely talk with me about them over at [cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com](https://cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com/) ;)


	27. Unforgivable (Love/Accident)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gabriel is the only one who doesn't know when Gabriel is lying. Some fluffy adrinette (but it's post-reveal so it totally counts as ladynoir, right?)

"What do you mean, again?" the voice in Ladybug- Lovebug's head asked.

"You akumatized me a few days ago," Lovebug said.

"I did?"

"You're not Greyling, right?" she asked.

"Who is Greyling?"

"He's the one who pretended to be you so the public would have a defeat to give them closure." Lovebug said. "You're Hawkmoth. Or, you were. We took your memories. It was the only way to keep you safe after defeating you."

"Ladybug-"

"Lovebug."

"Lovebug," the voice corrected. "You're saying I used to be Hawkmoth."

"Yes."

The voice was quiet, and Lovebug crawled up to her balcony to wait for instructions.

"What did I have you do last time?"

"You wanted our miraculous, but I didn't want to give them to you. I still won't, by the way. You had me incapacitate Chat Noir and bring him to you."

"Who are you?"

"Behind the mask?"

"Yes."

"You asked this last time, too. I still can't tell you. The Guardian says it's a protection built in to the miraculous."

"Who is Chat Noir?"

"Behind the mask?"

"Yes."

"Adrien Agreste."

The voice was silent even longer this time.

"Bring him to me again."

/*****/

Chat Noir was on his way to the patrol meeting spot when he saw her. She ran straight for him, her yoyo connecting with his chest before he even had time to flinch.

This time, it wasn't sadness so much as fear. The feeling of being unloved was back though, this time with a sense of self-hatred stronger than the feeling of unworthiness.

This time, he fell to his knees because of the shock he felt. Hawkmoth was defeated. There were no more akumas. He briefly suspected Felix, but Felix had texted a picture of him and Bridgette in front of their house in Germany that morning, and what use would he have for Ladybug being akumatized again?

"How?" he asked, clutching at the too-familiar hollow feeling in his chest.

"I don't know," she said, leaning down to wipe his tears. "I seem to be in less control this time though."

She scooped him into her arms and they swung to the hospital.

/*****/

"Come in," Gabriel said, opening the door of his hospital room for Ladybug.

“How?” Chat Noir managed to ask between sobs as he was set on the floor.

"I'm not sure," Gabriel said, sitting down on his bed again, trying not to show the fatigue he felt. "Though I am sure that you lied to me, son."

Chat was close to giving up. His father had no powers, no memories, and still he had both the superheroes of Paris in his clutches. Lovebug seemed even emptier this time, her expression vacant as she watched the father and son stare at each other.

"Not your son. We've only spoken two or three times before, years ago," Chat said, a last ditch attempt at keeping them safe. It clearly didn't work.

"Adrien," Gabriel said, reaching for him. Adrien flinched back and cried harder. Gabriel withdrew his hand.

"What do you want us to do, Hawkmoth?" Lovebug asked.

"Can you undo what you did to him?" Gabriel asked, gesturing to Chat.

"He'll be able to fight back if I do," she said.

"I know," he said. "Please, I can't watch him like this."

Lovebug hit Chat again with her yoyo, bouncing it off his shoulder. He could breathe again, the hollow ache was gone, but he didn't stop crying.

"Did it not work?" Gabriel asked.

"No," Chat said, standing and running the heel of his hand under his eyes. "It worked. I just didn't want it to come to this."

"Adrien-"

"Stop calling me that."

"Chat Noir."

Chat nodded, crossing his arms and trying not to sniffle.

"I brought you here to apologize."

"That doesn't mean much when you somehow reakumatized Ladybug, had her torture me and bring me here, and undid all the work we did to protect you from yourself, protect _everyone_ from you!"

"I know. I know. Here."

Gabriel held out his hand and Lovebug fell to her knees, dark magic washing up her form. A little black butterfly came to land on Gabriel's hand, and he winced in pain as it made contact.

"Ladybug," Gabriel said, shifting the insect to his other hand, "could you please purify this?"

Ladybug sat up, disoriented for only a moment. She shook her head. The distinct sensation of remembering when she didn't want to or expect to was getting familiar and she didn't like it.

"I apologize,” Gabriel said, “but I can only do so much without the miraculous, and without purifying the akuma, we'll only run into this situation again."

Ladybug saw the akuma and reacted. She purified it and set it free into the hallway.

"How?" she asked, closing the door again.

"Miss Dupain-Cheng?"

"No, Ladybug."

"Miss Dupain-Cheng is dating my son-"

"That doesn't mean anything about-" Chat tried to insist.

"-and Ladybug is dating Chat Noir."

The heroes exchanged a glance before turning to glare at Gabriel again.

"I only ask because when a nurse comes in here in five minutes to check my vitals, it will be easier to explain my son and his girlfriend than to explain you two."

The heroes exchanged another glance. Chat knew Ladybug would follow his lead here. He closed his eyes and went with his gut instinct, detransforming. By the time he opened his eyes, Marinette was standing next to him.

"What do we do now?" Marinette asked.

"Please, sit," Gabriel gestured to the chairs beside his bed.

"No."

Gabriel sighed but continued. "After you left, Adrien, I did more research on the adventures of Ladybug and Chat Noir. I saw the brutality you faced, and I worried for the parents of the children behind the mask. When suddenly there was a voice in my head this evening, I simply figured that one or more of the psychiatric diagnoses proposed for me since losing my memory were correct. Then, Lovebug began to explain who I used to be." He looked Adrien in the eye. "I cannot tell you the regret I felt. I can only assume my supervillainy was an attempt to find your mother. I honestly can't say I'm surprised. And then Ladybug informed me that you, my son, were Chat Noir. I spent years fighting my own son with a brutality that horrifies me, and that fight continued until he defeated me and had to remove my memories. I don't know how I became this person, but I can and will turn back."

"I don't care," Adrien said. "Which sounds harsh, I know, but I don't. You were a bad enough person to use magical power for selfish reasons before all this started. You were a bad enough person during it to kill civilians without a second thought, to possess people and take away their free will. To have akumas drain our life force, trap us in photographs, turn us against each other- hell, one tried to drown us in whipped cream. Ladybug jumped in a dinosaur's mouth once. We removed your memories in hopes of letting you turn back into the person you were before, but he doesn't deserve forgiveness any more than the man who possessed my girlfriend to drag me here to have this conversation."

Adrien put his hand on Marinette's arm and guided her towards the door.

"Adrien! I am trying to work this out with you. My methods may not have been the best-"

"Your methods are exactly the problem."

They had the door open before Gabriel spoke again.

"What will you do?"

"To you?" Adrien asked, turning back around. "I don't know yet. Don't do anything evil before we speak to you again."

Outside the door, Adrien broke.

"Oh, Kitty," Marinette said, pulling him close.

"I never wanted to have to say any of that," he said. "I never wanted to confront Hawkmoth. Seeing Felix, that was bad enough. I wanted my father to forget because then I could forget."

They stood there in the hallway, Adrien crying in Marinette's arms, until a nurse came to check on them.

"We're fine," Adrien said, straightening and wiping his face. "Sorry for disturbing you."

He let Marinette lead him out of the building. On the street she squeezed his hand and gave him a lost look.

"What do we do now?" she asked.

"Marinette, are you shaking?"

He looked her over and she was definitely shaking, pale and holding back tears.

"I'm fine," she said. "After what just happened, I'm more worried about you."

"You were reakumatized," he said, brushing her hair from her face. "Did you think I don't love you? Did I upset you? I thought- I thought the date went well. What did I do?"

"It wasn't you," she said, sighing. "Can we go somewhere? Just talk?"

"It's kind of late," he said, pulling his phone out to check the time. "Are your parents going to notice if you're gone?"

"Not until morning."

"Let's go to my house then," he said. "Gorilla won't say anything." He started looking around for somewhere to transform. "There, that corner is dark enough, let's-"

"No," she said, crossing her arms and hunching her shoulders a little. "Uh, it's nice out, let's walk."

"It's a long way," he said. "It'll be quick, and I have cookies for Tikki at home."

"No, it's..." she couldn't hold back her tears as she hunched in further on herself, her voice impossibly small. "I don't want to transform again. That's when I was akumatized, as I transformed."

Adrien wrapped his arms around her, not sure what he should do. Did he suggest she transform so she could see nothing bad would happen? Did he walk the whole way back, letting them both stew in their thoughts as they made the long journey and then they'd be too tired to talk once they got there?

"I could carry you," he said. "Chat can. Would that be okay?"

She nodded, and didn't let go of him while he transformed. He picked her up and ran and jumped to the roof of the shop across the street.

Getting through Adrien's window with Marinette in his arms was more difficult than he expected, but they made it without him dropping her. He pulled out a few throw blankets and they settled on the couch, curled up against each other.

"I'm so sorry, Marinette," Tikki said. "I thought you purified the akuma Hawkmoth took from you during the fight in the basement when you were akumatized, I didn't realize he stored it in his cane."

"Is that what happened?" Adrien asked.

"Yes, when Felix transformed for the first time, he must not have noticed it and it escaped. Since it was tied to your father instead of him, Felix wouldn't have felt anything. The next time Marinette felt strong negative emotions, the akuma attached to her and then when she transformed, it was able to akumatize her, since it was specific to Ladybug."

Marinette started crying again and Adrien, Tikki, and Plagg all hugged her.

"I'm so sorry," she said. "I should have-"

"You did nothing wrong," Tikki said.

"What had you so upset?" Adrien asked.

Marinette started to cry again. "You'll think it's stupid."

"I won't, I promise."

It took some convincing, but she finally told him.

"I was worried you only liked the Ladybug side of me," she said. She buried her face in his shoulder, shame and tears burning her face.

"Oh, Marinette," he said, running a hand through her hair.

"Alya asked what it was you noticed about me," she said into his sleeve. "I didn't have an answer."

"How about creative, leader, warm-hearted, accepting, patient, fiery-tempered, funny, brilliant, and very very pretty?"

"You're describing Ladybug," she said, turning her head to see him better. "See what I mean?"

"No, I'm describing my girlfriend, Marinette, who happens to be Ladybug," he said. "Marinette creates clothes and accessories from her imagination, she's the class president. She has a kind word for everyone and has helped more than a few classmates in crisis. She's put up with Chloe for years, which is patient, accepting, and fiery temper all together. And I hear all the little jokes you and Alya whisper to each other, you're definitely funny and brilliant. And Ladybug's mask covers these-" Adrien's finger trailed over her nose and cheeks, her freckles which had darkened in the summer sun. "Ladybug is also very very pretty, but only because Marinette is."

"I told you it was stupid," she said, trying to duck her head again. Adrien grabbed her chin to stop her.

"I may have fallen in love with Ladybug first," Adrien said, staring into her puffy red eyes, "but I meant it every time I said that I would love the girl behind the mask. I just didn't know at the time that I already did."

He leaned down and kissed her, and the kiss combined with that dizzy feeling from crying made every thought fly out of her head.

"Okay, okay," she said. "I goofed up, you like me."

"I love you."

"I love you," she said, sighing as she leaned against him again. "How are you doing?"

"I don't even know," he said, running a hand through his hair. "I can't believe that butterfly stayed tied to him even after he lost the miraculous."

"Had Felix seen it, he could have called it back and purified it," Tikki said. She and Plagg had moved to the arm of the couch and were curled around each other. "It would have been easy to miss though, he had no reason to look for it."

"I just wanted this all to be over," Adrien said. "I knew I'd have to watch him for the rest of his life, but... now he knows this is something he's capable of. Now he can look for other ways, other magic, instead of moving on."

"You don't think he meant it about turning away from all that?" Marinette asked.

"His reaction to having power over you was to use it for his own goals, not to find a way to undo it," he said. "Even if he did truly want to be a better person, even if he became one, I don't..."

"You don't owe him anything," Marinette finished. "You really don't. You don't owe him forgiveness, you don't owe him your time." She turned to look at Tikki. "Do you think Mama and Papa will take him in until he's eighteen?"

"I wouldn't do that to them," Adrien said.

"It wouldn't be something you'd do _to_ them," Marinette said. "It would be something they would do _for_  you, because they like you and want you to be safe."

"Finding another legal guardian would be a good idea," Plagg said, his eyes closed in feigned sleep.

"Yeah, but who-"

"Maybe the guy stomping down the hall who's not going to be as cool with your girlfriend sleeping over as you'd like to pretend?"

Adrien heard the footsteps a second after Plagg said it. Adrien jumped to his feet, panicked.

"Should I hide?" Marinette asked in a whisper.

"Will you hate me if I say yes?" he asked, looking around the room for hiding spots.

"Give me a boost," she said, pointing to the rock climbing wall.

Had Adrien not known that Marinette was Ladybug, he never would have thought that his clumsy classmate should be scaling rockwalls unsupported in the dark while trying to quickly avoid an adult. And he would have been right. She almost slipped three times and he made a mental note that she was not to be trusted with tasks that require balance in the future. She climbed on top of the skating ramp and hopped over to hide in the shadow of the book cases on the loft of the room.

"Adrien?" the Gorilla knocked on the door.

"Just a sec!" Adrien squeaked, throwing one of the blankets onto his bed and hoping that would be enough to make it look like he was there alone.

"Hi," Adrien said, pulling open the door.

"Why are you still up?" the Gorilla asked.

"I was watching a movie."

"Go to sleep."

Gorilla turned around to leave, and Adrien made a split second decision.

"Can we talk in the morning?"

"About?"

"I need a new guardian. I'll explain in the morning, but-"

"I'll do it."

"What?" Adrien had meant he wanted help finding someone. He hadn't expected Gorilla to offer.

"You're basically my kid already. Go to sleep. And tell Marinette she can stay just this once."

The Gorilla left and Marinette climbed down the stairs from the balcony.

"Guess we weren't as sneaky as we thought," she said.

"Guess not," Adrien said with a shake of his head.

"He really cares about you."

"Yeah." Adrien turned away from the door to face Marinette. "Did you want to sleep over? I can get you home in the morning before your parents get the bakery ready."

"Yeah, that would be nice," she said. "Do you have something I can borrow?" she asked, gesturing to her jean shorts, blouse, and blazer.

"Yep, hold on."

Adrien produced an "I Love Ladybug" t-shirt and a pair of athletic shorts with a tie at the waist. She changed in the bathroom and he pulled on pajama pants and the sweater Ladybug had made for him. When Marinette exited the bathroom she reached out to feel the sleeve of the sweater.

"This is well made. Where's it from?"

"What? You made it," he said. "Ladybug gave it to me."

Plagg started laughing. Tikki started giggling. Marinette and Adrien exchanged confused looks.

"I made it?" Marinette asked. "Why would I forget that?" She turned to the kwamis. "How is a sweater part of my missing memories?"

Tikki giggled harder. "It's the cause of them! He wore it to class as Adrien once. You figured out who he was from that."

"That's where all my black yarn went!" Marinette said.

"I... I didn't even think of that," Adrien said. "I had assumed that Ladybug was someone I had never met in real life. Paris is such a big city. I didn't even think about if it would risk my identity. I only stopped wearing it out because it's so warm."

Marinette started laughing, the kwamis joining her again. She wrapped her arms around Adrien, still giggling and he started to laugh as well. They held each other for a few minutes, their laughter a nice change to the tears they had shed in each other's arms.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so tired. Just, so tired. Work is dumb. Home is hard. Most of my spare energy goes to writing now. But I'm almost done with this one, right? I'm gonna miss all your lovely comments when it's done though. They make me so happy. If you don't feel like leaving a comment here, you can always pop over to [cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com](https://cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com/) and say hi <3


	28. #ShamelesslyAkumatized (Forgiveness/Stay)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien and the Gorilla work out custody. Ladybug makes a statement to the public that makes a surprising impact on her friends and family.

The next morning, Marinette woke up with Adrien curled up sleeping with his head on her stomach. He was such a _cat_!

"Shut off your alarm," Marinette said, shoving at his shoulder. "I don't know where it is, but we have to get me back home."

"Noo," Adrien whined. "Comfy."

"Please?"

Adrien growled but sat up, looking around until he located his alarm clock.

"I'll get changed," she said, kissing his cheek as she passed him on the way to the bathroom. "I slept really well."

"Me too."

Adrien tugged on jeans and shoes, not entirely sure why he was dressing before transforming, but routines are hard to break.

"Ready for another trip in my arms, Princess?" Chat asked when Marinette reemerged, bowing dramatically for her.

"Actually," she said, chewing her bottom lip, "I was thinking I would transform. This isn't something I can be scared of. I have to transform to help people, and I don't want to stop helping."

"You don't have to do anything that'll upset you," he said, taking her hands in his.

"No, I need to do this." She took a breath and let it out in a puff. "But... hold my hand while I do?"

"Of course, My Lady." He brought one hand to his lips in a kiss and she smiled.

"You'll be fine, I promise," Tikki said, smiling sleepily.

"Okay. Okay, spots on!"

Ladybug stood before Chat Noir with her eyes screwed closed.

"Welcome back, Bugaboo."

"I'm okay," she whispered. Her eyes opened and she squeezed his hands. "I'm okay."

"Can I still walk you home?" he asked.

"Of course, Kitty."

They landed on her balcony a few minutes later and shared a kiss before parting.

Adrien showered and dressed for the day before heading downstairs for breakfast. The Gorilla was there waiting for him.

"We need to work out the details," Gorilla said. "Is your father going to do this willingly, or will I have to fight for custody?"

"I don't know," Adrien said. "I said a lot of stuff to him yesterday."

"Want to tell me what happened?"

"Uh... Just stuff. Manipulating Marinette, lying to me, just completely missing the point, kinda stuff."

"Don't tell me he got his memory back," Gorilla said. "I know he doesn't have his miraculous anymore, but I'd rather he didn't know to go looking for trouble."

"What."

Breakfast was a very long meal. Gorilla had to explain that he had known about Chat Noir almost from the beginning, and figured out Ladybug and Hawkmoth in the last few weeks. Adrien thought back on all the times he had transformed only around the corner from the Gorilla in the car and figured he probably was the worst at keeping his identity secret.

"Don't worry about it, the previous Chat Noir was worse," Gorilla said.

"What do you mean? You knew him?"

"Felix? Yeah. I was his bodyguard when he was about your age, running around like you do chasing after his Ladybug."

"I have so many questions."

Adrien and Gorilla discussed the fight the night before. Gorilla offered to speak to Gabriel and see if he could convince him to sign over custody.

"Some part of him wants what's best for you," Gorilla said. "Let's see if we can get him to focus on that."

/*****/

"I'm proud of you for facing your fears, Marinette!"

"Thanks, Tikki," Marinette said, changing into pajamas. It was still early, she wanted to sleep more. "There's cookies on my desk if you want."

Tikki zipped over to open the box. She was deciding which cookie she wanted first when Marinette flopped onto her bed and curled into her cat pillow.

"Hey, Tikki?"

"Yes?"

"What if Ladybug told everyone that she was akumatized?"

"What do you mean?"

"Would that be a bad idea?"

"What do you think?"

"I don't know," she said. "I was just thinking about other times I had a feeling of 'I need to do this' and as relieved as I was when Chat covered for me at the press conference, I really wanted to let everyone know."

"What do you think people would get out of it?" Tikki asked.

"I don't know," she rolled onto her back, bringing the cat pillow with her. "Maybe they'll feel less alone. Blame themselves less. Maybe it'll help me remember that having strong feelings isn't something to be ashamed of." She sighed. "But that's selfish."

"Maybe it will remind _them_  that having strong feelings isn't something to be ashamed of," Tikki said, brushing cookie crumbs off her paws before settling on the pillow next to Marinette.

"Maybe."

/*****/

Adrien went with the Gorilla to the hospital, but he waited outside the room. He tried to ignore the raised voices from within a few minutes later and started texting Nino. Nino had a disastrous summer babysitting job and always had funny stories about the nine year old girl and five year old boy he watched and the things they got up to.

"Adrien?" the Gorilla poked his head into the hall. "Would you join us for a moment?"

Adrien shoved his phone in his pocket and wished he had brought Marinette because everything was easier with her smile. He had held her hand while she transformed again. He should have had her here to hold his hand as he had to face his own transformation.

"Adrien," Gabriel said, "do you really want to take away my custody of you?"

"Yes, I do."

"But I'm not that man anymore," he said. "I can't remember even being that man. I saw what that man did, and I agree it was horrible, but Adrien, I am your father. I love you."

"I love you too, Father," Adrien said. "But I can't forget what you did. I can't excuse it, I can't pretend that you're a different person. You might not remember, but you did all of those things, willingly and with so many other options available. I'll learn to forgive you, but I won't forget. Until you repeatedly and consistently prove that you are who you claim to be, not who you've shown yourself to be time and time again, you shouldn't be my parent." Tears formed in his eyes, but Adrien ignored them. "And I shouldn't have to be the one to tell you that."

"Adrien-"

"The best thing for him," Gorilla interrupted, stepping between them enough to shield Adrien while he wiped his eyes, "is for you not to be the one in charge of his life right now."

Gabriel had the grace not to beg. Adrien had outlined his terms clearly. He had his path set before him.

"Okay. Bring me the papers, and I will sign them."

"Thank you, Father."

In the hallway, Adrien called Marinette.

"Hey, Kitty, I was about to call you," she said.

"He agreed," Adrien said. "He's giving up custody."

"Oh, Adrien," she said. "Come over. Let my parents and me dote on you for a little while."

He almost made an excuse to the Gorilla out of habit.

"Can I go to Marinette's for a while?"

"Yeah. I'll drive you. If you plan to stay for dinner, text me. We'll outline ground rules tomorrow."

/*****/

Adrien relaxed upon setting foot in the bakery, and even more when Sabine made a beeline to him to give him a hug.

"Marinette says you're having a rough time," she said. "You're always welcome here."

Tom handed him a box of pastries and patted him on the back.

"I live above a bakery and I don't eat as many of these as you do," Marinette said when Adrien handed her a croissant.

"Your parents like me, apparently."

They settled into video games for a while before Adrien remembered something.

"You said you were about to call me. What's up?"

"Oh! So, I want to go public with the information that I was akumatized."

"What?"

"Everyone should know that even Ladybug can have a bad day, that we're no better than them, that having a moment of weakness doesn't make you any less of a superhero."

Adrien paused the game and leaned over to kiss her.

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng, I love you."

Marinette blushed and unpaused the game.

/*****/

Ladybug stood before a podium in a very small conference room a few days later. She had notecards, but she had memorized her speech, remembering Alya's insistence that she _never_  improvise. She knew what she wanted to say.

"I was akumatized. I was the victim that created feelings of overwhelming sadness in people when hit with my yoyo. I came before you all today because I wanted you to know that even a superhero feels what you do. Even I was susceptible to Hawkmoth's powers. To each and every one of you who has ever been under his control: It was not your fault. You did nothing wrong. Feeling strong negative emotions is a good thing, it means you care deeply. To each of you who has a friend or family member who has survived Hawkmoth's control: tell them that you know it wasn't their fault. Show them that you don't think any less of them. Support them in healing from this violation." She paused and reached for Chat's hand. "That's what Chat Noir has been doing for me."

She was glad there were only a handful of reporters in the room, because each had quite a few questions. The main theme seemed to be responsibility.

"I am sorry that I hurt people that day," she said. "But I do _not_  feel responsible. I didn't choose to be akumatized. I fought it as hard as I could. The person responsible was Hawkmoth, just like with every other akuma." She repeated this statement almost word for word four more times.

"Can we know your akuma name?"

"No," she said, shaking her head and trying not to make a face.

"Can you tell us why you were akumatized?"

"No. It doesn't change what happened. It doesn't change who is at fault."

The conference ended and the heroes were led out a side door of town hall.

"Wait!"

Chloe came running up to Ladybug.

"Something wrong?" Ladybug asked.

"Thank you," she said, tears falling openly. "Thank you."

Ladybug stepped forward and held her arms out, and Chloe hugged her.

"Thank you," she whispered. She pulled away, wiped her eyes, and left with a wave.

"You're already making an impact with this, Bug," Chat said, taking her hand.

"Good," she said. "That's all I can hope for."

She kissed him.

Chloe caught it on her camera phone. The picture went viral.

"LadyNoir kiss finally captured on film!"

The only thing to top it on social media was the new cool hashtag.

"ShamelesslyAkumatized. I started it so people could share their stories," Alya said, handing her phone to Marinette as they sat on a picnic bench the next day. "I think it's making a difference. It's trending, along with her speech. I know you've never been akumatized, but have you watched it?"

"I watched it," Marinette said. "What did it mean to you?"

"It meant someone got it," she said. "Someone got that it sucks. You don't have any choices and you're the worst version of yourself and everyone sees it and she made sure that everyone knows that you can come back from that."

"What are you two lovely ladies talking about?" Adrien asked, dropping onto the bench next to Marinette and pulling her close to kiss her cheek.

" _How_  did you two go from zero to PDA in five minutes?" Alya asked.

"That's what you were talking about?" Nino asked. "It's one of the mysteries of the universe, these two."

"I'm just saying, it took someone-" Alya sent Nino a side eye, "-over two months to hold my hand in front of the school in the mornings."

"I'm sorry, you're intimidating," Nino said. "Like, really, really intimidating. I was scared of you. Still am. Are you saying I should not fear how awesome you are? That you aren't so awesome it makes men of strong moral fiber quake before you?"

"I don't know," Alya said, "are any around here to ask?"

Nino pulled his hat low over his face as the other three laughed with/at him. It took a couple minutes of teasing for the conversation to circle back to Ladybug's speech.

"What did it mean to you?" Marinette asked Nino.

"Read my tweet," he said, handing over his phone. On the screen read "I was #ShamelesslyAkumatized because I had one moment of being so upset it overrode everything else. And you know what? That's normal."

"That's great," Marinette said.

Adrien watched her ask all of their friends over the next few days what Ladybug's speech meant to them. He watched it slowly work into the core of her, loosen the knot of guilt that ate at her when she thought he wasn't looking and gave her nightmares that left her shaking and calling him in the middle of the night.

"What does it mean to you?" Adrien asked a few nights later. Her speech was playing on the news again and she was nodding off against him in the corner of the couch while her parents sat at the kitchen table working out what to prepare for the bakery the next day.

"It means... I get to let go," she said. "Ladybug let go, so I can, too."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for complaining last time. I love all of you so much <3  
> Talk with me over at [cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com](https://cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com/) if you like :)


	29. Moments (Roses/Tangled)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Small moments in the lives of the heroes as things settle down.

Marinette heard a thump on her balcony and rolled her eyes, a fond smile betraying that her annoyance was performative.

"What is it this time?" she asked herself as she climbed out the skylight. A bouquet of red roses sat on the table. The note attached to them didn't say anything, but it bore a scribbled cat in black pen.

"He'll spoil me," Marinette said to Tikki as she came inside.

"I'm glad you two are so happy," Tikki said.

"It's not all happiness," Marinette said, setting the roses next to the book of poetry, half-finished box of chocolates, new knitting needles, and silver charm bracelet that had also "miraculously" ended up on her balcony. "But the parts with him are all good and right."

/*****/

"He won't mind?" Adrien asked the Gorilla for the sixth time that morning.

"Do I need to get him on the phone? He's old and grown, he's definitely not using this room."

"But it was your son's. I don't want to take away those memories."

"You keep Master Fu out of this and my memories will be just fine in my head."

Adrien laughed and nodded.

"Go get some boxes," Gorilla said. "If we can get everything moved in tonight, you'll have three weeks to get it all settled before school starts."

"That sounds like more than enough time," Adrien said, grabbing his keys from the table.

"You'll learn quickly otherwise."

It took months for Adrien to fully move into Gorilla's son's old room. He knew he was comfortable there when he pried one of the baseboards in the closet away from the wall and tucked two envelopes in the space.

One said "Emilie".

One said "Adrien".

/*****/

Marinette had fallen asleep on her chaise watching a movie with Adrien. He covered her with a blanket, shut off the computer screen, and told Tikki to tell her he had gone home before creeping down the stairs.

"Adrien," Tom said from the kitchen table. "Come sit."

Adrien froze on the stairs.

"Am I in trouble? Is this the 'don't hurt my daughter' speech?"

Tom laughed. "No to both of those. I wanted to see how you were doing with everything going on."

Adrien sat across from him and Tom got up to pour him a cup of tea. Adrien glanced at the paperwork on the table. He hadn't realized there was so much background work that went into running a bakery beyond baking.

"So, you've moved in, you're getting settled, you're preparing for the new school year, your father's out of the hospital and back at work. I won't pretend to know what happened between you two, but I know you're a kid that doesn't like to make waves, so I wanted you to know that I'm proud of you for fighting for what you need."

Adrien found himself trying to hold back tears. He spent much too much time crying these days.

"So, how are you doing?"

"Everything's been a lot," Adrien said, clearing his throat and ducking his head to blink a few times. "I hope you don't mind how much time I've been spending here. It helps."

"You're always welcome."

A quiet moment passed, and it was just starting to turn awkward when Adrien said, "Marinette said... that you didn't know your father growing up. I hope you don't mind that she told me, but I wanted to ask... How did you know you'd make a good dad?"

Tom thought for a minute. "I didn't. I worried that since my Y chromosome came from someone who left, that I would be the kind of person who left. It took Sabine a while to convince me that it was my choice. Every day, every moment, I have the choice to stay. I am the father I am because of a thousand choices, most of them small. That's how you become the person you want to be. And I'm not saying it's easy. It means paying attention to every small choice. Using your will over your instincts when they steer you wrong is exhausting. But it gets easier with time."

Adrien nodded. The Gorilla had given him a similar speech the other day. If both the good dads in his life agreed, then that was exactly what he would have to do.

"Thank you," Adrien said.

"You know," Tom said, getting a glint in his eye that Adrien had seen in his daughter many times, "we have an opening for a part time employee. Mostly behind the register, but some baking would be required. Maybe we wouldn't start you right away, since you're still settling in, but-"

"That sounds amazing," Adrien said.

/*****/

"Ah, Miss Dupain-Cheng," Gabriel said, not looking up from his computer screen. "Nice of you to stop by."

"It's not like we can really leave you unsupervised for long," she muttered under her breath.

"I asked you here for a reason," he said, standing to gesture towards the office's couch. He stood next to it, waiting for her to sit. She tried staring him down, but eventually gave up and sat. He sat at the other end of the couch and tried to smile at her.

"It bugs you, that I'm so young and still managed to keep you from you goal for so long," Marinette said with a smirk.

"It 'bugs' me? I see my son is in fact influencing you. I hope you have an influence on him as well. You two will be good for each other, I think."

"Mr. Agreste, what do you want?"

"I want to offer you an internship for the duration of the school year. Only ten, fifteen hours a week, and very little pay, but it's experience in the industry; invaluable at your age."

"In exchange for?"

"In exchange for your talent being part of my fashion house. I have been aware of your career goals since that first hat contest. You have already started to make a name for yourself, and with the right guidance, you can-"

"No, I mean, what do you expect me to do to earn this 'generosity'? Give you reports on Adrien? Tell him how nice you are at work? Pressure him to come back to you when you haven't even bothered to try and change at all?"

"That's not exactly what I meant," Gabriel said. "I do think it would be good for Adrien to see that I am making an effort, that I can help you two provide for yourselves and build a future, so-"

"Gabriel," Marinette said, standing, "he told you what you have to do. Show _him_  that you've changed. And do that by _actually changing_. There's no 'use Marinette' shortcut. In fact, trying to take shortcuts proves you're missing the point altogether."

Gabriel stood. "Miss Dupain-Cheng-"

"Gabriel," Marinette said, crossing her arms. "I want you two to have a relationship. But I'd rather Adrien has to turn to other men in his life for a father figure than have you doing a horrible job and hurting him every time he sees you. You want what's best for him?"

Gabriel spluttered for a moment, then stilled. "Yes. I always have."

"Then change. That's the only way."

Marinette headed towards the door.

"Marinette," Gabriel called.

She stopped and turned around. "Yes?"

"I don't know how."

She walked back over and put a hand on his arm. "Try being more like him."

/*****/

"Stop that," Ladybug said, shoving lightly at Chat Noir's shoulder.

"But My Lady! How can I win you over if I don't show you a purr-fect time?"

"You already won me over, remember?" she asked. "Now stop punning or I'm dangling you off the roof again."

"You deserve to be won over every day for the rest of our lives, My Lady," he said, taking her hand to kiss the back of it.

"Ugh, ridiculous flirt," she said, shaking her head. Her smile was enough to encourage him to keep going though.

"Though it might be im-paw-sible, I will dedicate-"

Chat made a high pitched squeaking noise as he was suddenly shoved from his perch next to Ladybug and fell halfway to the ground before her yoyo wrapped around him, yanking him to a halt.

"I told you I would!" she yelled down to him, bouncing the string a little and hearing a smaller squeak from Chat.

"That wasn't fur-nny!"

She let him drop another foot.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry!"

"That's better," she muttered, pulling him back up.

Chat waited until he was fully settled next to her to look up with wide eyes and his cat ears back.

"Aw, come here, Kitty," she said, holding her arm out for him to slide into her side. He did, but he kept one hand on the roof under him, and the other low on her back, close to his baton.

"Your aversion to pun-based flirting is un... _fur_ -tunate for me," he said.

He waited a beat. She tensed. He pushed away from her, running to the other end of the roof. She jumped to her feet.

"Chat Noir!"

"Cat-ch me if you can, Bugaboo!"

They lapped the city twice that night, screaming and chasing each other. Paris had never seen their heroes happier.

/*****/

He had to get this right.

"Adrien?"

He had to get all of this right.

"Adrien, everyone else is done."

If he didn't get everything right... His mind supplied lots of things that would go wrong. Marinette would leave him. Plagg would ask him to give up his miraculous. Gorilla wouldn't want to keep taking care of him. His father would-

"Adrien, I've watched you check your test over three times."

His father would...

"Okay, class dismissed. Adrien, please hand in your test."

He grabbed his things and dropped the test on the teacher's desk before bolting out the door, ignoring the annoyed shouts of the classmates he shoved out of the way and the teacher trying to get him to stay. He made his way to the music room he knew was empty all afternoon and closed the door, leaning against it as he slid to the ground.

"Hey, Kid, what was that?" Plagg asked.

"Nothing," he said, shaking his head. "I'm fine."

"You're sweating through your shirt and the teacher had to call you five times."

"I'm fine," he said, wiping at the strange tickling sensation on his face. He was crying.

"I'm gonna go get Pigtails," Plagg said, raising to peek out the window in the top half of the door.

"She'll find me," he said.

"Yeah, she's right there," Plagg said, lowering to Adrien's shoulder where he started purring, trying to impart some comfort. Adrien slid to the side so the door could open and Marinette slipped in and sat next to him.

"I saw you looking pretty upset leaving your literature class," Marinette said, running a hand up and down his arm. "And you sounded really worried about that test even though you knew everything when I helped you study last night."

"I don't know why this is such a big deal," Adrien said, trying to control his breathing, his shaking, something. "It's just one test. This shouldn't be so... big."

"Okay, it's okay," she said, rubbing his back. "Can you try one of those breathing exercises you looked up the other day?" she asked.

She walked through the steps with him until his breathing was even again and his shaking had stopped.

"Do you want to call the Gorilla, have him pick you up?"

"Yeah. I don't want to go back to class today."

Marinette walked Adrien to the nurses office to explain that he had had a panic attack. The nurse had him sit and drink a bottle of water until she could get the Gorilla on the phone. She tried to get Marinette to go back to class, but gave up after she saw the way Adrien grabbed onto her wrist at the suggestion.

"So, what happened, Kitty?" Marinette asked when the nurse was distracted.

"I really don't know," he said, rubbing at the headache forming in the middle of his forehead. "I'm really good at literature. Gorilla said so long as I'm doing my best and asking for help when I need it, he doesn't care what grades I get."

"But?"

Adrien sighed and tried to pretend he didn't know the answer to that question. Marinette squeezed his hand, and he dropped his head to her shoulder.

"But I keep thinking of how disappointed my dad was every time I came home with a test that wasn't perfect. I feel like Gorilla deserves me doing even better than I did for Gabriel."

"Gorilla and I want you doing your best," she said, running her fingers through his sweaty hair. "Working yourself into a panic attack is not your best."

"Yeah."

Marinette stayed with Adrien until Gorilla arrived and gave her a Look. She promised to stop by that night with notes for the classes he missed.

"Come on," Gorilla said. "I signed you out. We're heading to the doctor."

It took a while and a lot of work, but Adrien finally had the support he needed to manage his anxiety.

/*****/

Marinette was halfway through the bushes at the edge of the park before she remembered her Ladybug suit wouldn't have torn from the branches scratching at her the way her shirt was at that moment.

"Look at you!" she cooed at the bundle of fur a little deeper in the bush.

"What are you doing?" Adrien asked.

"Can I borrow your gym shirt?" she asked, sticking a hand back out of the bush.

"Why?" he asked, fishing the garment from his gym bag and handing it to her.

"I was right about that sound," she said, emerging with the shirt bundled up and held to her chest. "Meet your new competition for all my love and head scratches."

Adrien stepped closer. In Marinette's arms was a tiny white kitten.

"I love her," Adrien said, bending down so he was almost nose to nose with the kitten. "I figured it would be a few years before we had children, My Lady, but it looks like life had another plan."

She laughed and shifted the kitten so she had a hand free to boop his nose. "Don't make that joke around my parents, okay?"

They took the kitten to the vet and found out that the kitten was a boy and very healthy, with no signs of an owner.

"You can't keep him because of the bakery, right?" Adrien asked.

"Pretty much."

"I hope Gorilla likes cats."

Gorilla did like cats, it turned out.

"I can't believe I rescued a kitten today," Marinette said, running a finger over Chat Blanc's head.

"I can believe it," Adrien said, settling next to her. "You rescued this kitten long ago."

/*****/

"Adrien?"

"Who is this?" Adrien had the phone balanced between his shoulder and ear as he stirred the soup on the stove in the Dupain-Cheng's kitchen. He had wanted to make dinner as a thank you for all they had been doing for him, and the soup recipe he had found sounded delicious and within his skill level.

"It's Nathalie."

"Oh." He hadn't thought about Nathalie much since she left. She was part of his life on which he didn't want to think back. "Hi."

"Hello. I wanted to speak to you. Is this a good time?"

Adrien pushed the last ingredient into the pot and turned on a timer. Stepping away from the stove, he sat on one of the stools to the kitchen table. "Uh, yeah, I guess."

"I wanted to speak to you first. I haven't contacted your father, as per our agreement."

"What's this about, Nathalie?"

"We'll proceed however you think is best," she said. She was avoiding his questions, continuing as if she expected him to cut he off for some reason.

"Nathalie? Is everything okay?"

"I might have a lead on your mother."

He didn't move again until the buzzer went off for the soup.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Um... Surprise?  
> Talk with me over at [cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com](https://cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com/) if you like :)


	30. Plans (Reveal/Courage)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nathalie's news causes some shockwaves. Marinette rallies everyone- EVERYONE- to do what needs to be done.

The Dupain-Cheng family found Adrien standing over a pot of soup on the stove, clutching fistfulls of his hair and hyperventilating.

"Adrien?" Marinette said, pulling him away from the stove. He flinched away from her touch. "What? What's wrong?"

"I have to go," he whispered. "I have to."

"You're not going anywhere until you calm down," Sabine said, guiding Adrien to the couch. He tried to pull away from her, too, but she kept a firm hand on him until he was sitting.

"Adrien? What do you need right now?" Marinette asked.

He handed her his phone, and she wasn't sure what to do at first. Adrien had his eyes closed and was focusing on his breathing, so she unlocked it (how far she'd come from the days of stealing it and not knowing the code, to now, when he had shown her the code and handed it to her willingly!). The phone app was open, so she looked through his recent calls. There was a number with no name from less than ten minutes before. She pushed "call" and hoped for answers.

"Adrien, did you have questions?"

"It's Marinette," she said. "Who is this?"

"Marinette? It's Nathalie. Adrien hung up on me a minute ago."

"What did you say to him?"

Nathalie explained, and the longer she talked, the more Marinette felt like her head was going to explode. She reached out at some point and grabbed Adrien's hand, holding onto him like a lifeline.

"Okay," Marinette said. "We'll call you back."

"Wait, Marinette-"

Marinette hung up and placed the phone on the coffee table in front of her.

"We have to tell Gorilla," Marinette said, turning to Adrien.

"You have to tell Tom and Sabine," Tom said, his eyebrows so tightly scrunched together it looked like it hurt. "What's going on?"

"Everyone needs to calm down," Sabine said, setting a tray with four mugs down on the table. "So we're all going to sit here and drink tea until things seem a little easier to talk about, okay?"

She handed out mugs and Marinette was reminded why she admired her mother so much. The mug seemed to ground Adrien, and the silence gave Marinette time to not only process Nathalie's discovery, but to guess at what Adrien might be feeling right now.

"We should tell them," Marinette said, nodding to her parents. "About..." She brushed her thumb over Adrien's miraculous and then tucked her hair behind her ear, tapping her earring.

Adrien nodded. "It's your family, your choice."

"Mama, Papa," Marinette said, turning to them before she could lose her nerve. "I'm Ladybug. Adrien is Chat Noir."

Her parents exchanged a look.

"We suspected as much," Sabine said. "Thank you for telling us."

"I... what? You suspected?"

"We never asked because we figured there was too much risk with Hawkmoth still at large," Tom said. "And when he was defeated, we figured you'd tell us when you were ready." He put one large hand on Marinette's back. "We're very proud of you. Both of you. Being superheroes is a job we can't even understand, and you still exceeded every expectation we could have for you as yourselves. We love you both."

Marinette turned to Adrien, who was smirking behind the mug of tea at his lips. "They suspected,” she said.

"I mean, Gorilla knew, too. We should have suspected them suspecting."

"Is that all?" Tom asked.

"Did my father seriously just ask me 'is that all' to me coming out as a superhero?" Marinette asked Adrien, putting her mug down to gesture wildly.

"He did," Adrien said. The feeling of unreality that had settled into his bones was making this funnier than it should be.

"I think what he meant is," Sabine cut in, "why reveal now? And what was that phone call?"

"Nathalie has a lead on my mom," Adrien said.

"What?" Sabine half rose from her chair. "What does that mean? Where is she? Is she okay?"

"She hasn't found her," Adrien said. "She found, and I quote, 'a lead on Emilie's essence'. She said it would be nearly impossible to find her without a miraculous holder or two with her. It's going to take a few months to a year though."

"Are there others?" Tom asked. "You shouldn't have to leave school for this. Or could Nathalie be trusted with one?"

"There are others," Marinette said. She exchanged a look with Adrien. "But one is our age, and the other is too old to transform."

"We need to speak to Fu," Adrien said. "We need to speak to Fu, and Gorilla, and the school, and get more details from Nathalie, and-"

"Adrien," Sabine said, putting a hand on his arm. "One thing at a time. Let me get a notebook and a pen and we'll write down everything that needs to get done so nothing is forgotten, okay?"

He sighed and nodded, sagging into the couch. Marinette leaned against him, smiling a little.

"This is a good thing, right, Kitty?"

"I think so," Adrien said. "I hope so."

"Okay," Sabine said. "I started a list of people we need to talk to. Gorilla, the school, Nathalie, and 'Fu'?"

"Master Fu," Marinette explained. "He's one of the miraculous holders. He kind of runs things right now."

"Okay, he's on the list. Anyone else?"

"My father," Adrien said. "Maybe put him towards the bottom of the list."

"We're forgetting something," Marinette said, getting up to pace. "Can we add 'get Marinette her memories back' to that list, please?"

"Yes, good idea," Adrien said.

"Excuse me?" Tom said. "Where are your memories?"

"I gave them up the first time I figured out that Adrien was Chat," Marinette said, still pacing.

"What do you mean 'the first time'?" Sabine asked.

"I can't really tell you much, because I don't remember," she said.

"Who has your memories?" Sabine asked.

"Master Fu."

Tom and Sabine exchanged a look. They had figured that there would be a learning curve when the kids told them about their superhero lives, but this was a lot at once. Missing memories, missing Emilie Agreste, some mysterious man running things and keeping people's memories?

"Marinette, your phone's been going off," Tikki said, popping out of her purse by the door.

Tom shrieked and tried to climb on the coffee table.

"Dad, stop! It's just Tikki!" Marinette said, scooping Tikki into her hands. "She's my kwami. She turns me into Ladybug."

"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Dupain!" Tikki said, flying a little closer.

"It's- that's- you’re-?"

"Where's Plagg? Plagg, get out here and introduce yourself," Tikki said, spinning in a circle to look for him.

"I'm sleeping," Plagg said.

"You always say that," Tikki said.

"Because I'm always sleeping."

Adrien poked Plagg out of his shirt to make introductions. Once the parents were better acquainted with the kwamis, Marinette sat next to Adrien again, watching her father fetch cheese and cookies.

"Was that what we forgot? Introducing the kwamis?" he asked.

"I don't think so," Marinette said.

Adrien's phone began ringing. He cringed and picked it up, but the name on the screen made him smile.

"Hey," Adrien said. "No idea. What kind of colors? Huh, cool. No, I'll ask him. We only saw dark purple, so that's probably a good thing, I think? Yeah, I'll ask. Say hi for me."

He hung up and turned to Marinette.

"Felix and Bridgette say hi. Felix says his butterflies are different colors, like pink and yellow and-"

"Bridgette and Felix!" Marinette shouted, jumping to her feet. "That's who we forgot!"

"Who are Bridgette and Felix?" Sabine asked, writing them down on her list.

Marinette was pacing again. "Us but older."

"Time travel?" Sabine whispered to Tom.

"I hope not?"

"They're the previous Ladybug and Chat Noir," Adrien supplied.

A plan formed in Marinette's head. A backup plan formed behind that.

"Okay, first thing's first," Marinette said to Adrien, hands landing on her hips. "You call Gorilla, and I'll go get my memories back."

"But you'll have a headache for days," Adrien said, grabbing her wrist before she could run off. "And we probably don't need those memories just this second."

"Okay," she said, reshuffling the first few steps of her plan. "Do we have enough soup to invite everyone we need to dinner?"

Over dinner with the Gorilla and Master Fu, they discussed the plan. Everyone agreed that Nathalie "I Helped Hawkmoth Of My Own Free Will For Years" Sancoeur was not to be trusted with her own miraculous. Everyone except Adrien agreed that Adrien and/or Marinette missing months of school was out of the question. When dinner ended, they had a video conference with Bridgette and Felix.

"We're still just getting started," Bridgette said. "This would be the ideal time to do something like this."

"We're just getting started because our wedding is in a week, dear." Felix shook his head. "We couldn't spend a year on this. Taking on this group of magicians has already set our lives back. And I understand that your mother has been missing for a while, Chat, but we have a whole city to look out for here."

"If Ms. Sancoeur is using the methods I believe she is using," Master Fu said, "She might be able to get by without you most of the time. Maybe you could work with her for a week at a time, and be home for the rest of the time?"

"We could possibly take a few long weekends every month or so to collaborate with her, if she doesn't need us full time," Felix conceded. "But _after_  the wedding. I don't mean to brag, but I have a very talented suit designer and I will be stunning."

"Flatterer," Bridgette said. "You're all invited, of course, now that the kids have told you about the miraculouses and us."

"We'll get back to you on that," Sabine said.

"Lovely to see you again, as always, Stuart," Bridgette said.

"Who is Stuart?" Tom asked, looking around the group.

"Me," the Gorilla said. "She's the only one that calls me that these days."

The call ended and Marinette nodded in satisfaction.

"So we can call Nathalie in the morning and let her know," she said.

"What about Gabriel?" Gorilla asked. "Want me to talk to him?"

"I don't want him involved," Adrien said, crossing his arms. "This is how he turned to manipulation and general evil, so he doesn't get a say this time. He knew Nathalie had other methods, she said so herself, and he chose to become a terrorist instead. He doesn't get to know. If we get her back... if we get answers... then he can know."

"Your father was Hawkmoth?" Tom said. "No wonder you were worried about the influence he was on you."

“Papa!"

"Well, I think being Chat Noir means you're exactly the right kind of person. You were given power and did the right thing with it," Master Fu said.

Tom nodded in agreement. "That's all I was saying."

Adrien and the Gorilla went home and Marinette made up her mind about her memories.

"I need them. I need to know that there's nothing in there that can help. I can handle a headache and needing to sleep more for a few days. Better to get it over with before school anyway, right?"

"Of course," Master Fu said. "Would you like one of your parents to come with you? I would feel better about you leaving afterwards with one of them than alone like last time."

Sabine accompanied them to Master Fu's shop. Marinette sat on the mat as before, and Master Fu brought out a glowing jar. It looked like fireflies of different colors and sizes floating around.

"Those are my memories?" she asked.

"Yes. It shouldn't take long, they simply need to be put back in about the right spot and they'll sort themselves out."

"Okay. I'm ready," Marinette said.

"Can I hold her hand?" Sabine asked, sitting next to her.

"Yes, it's encouraged."

Sabine watched Master Fu work, tapping at Marinette's scalp and dropping different powders in her hair and around her as he worked. He never touched the jar, but Sabine noticed that the number of points of light decreased as he worked. When he was finished, Marinette slumped forward onto the mat. Sabine ran a hand over her back and Marinette turned to face her.

"What do you remember, sweetie?"

"I'm never having strawberry ice cream again," she said.

"You know, somehow," Sabine said, helping Marinette to her feet, "that's one of the most normal out-of-context things you've said all day."

Master Fu bid them goodnight and Marinette told the story of getting awful ice cream while they walked home.

/*****/

The next morning Adrien explained the plan to Nathalie.

"I was hoping to see you," Nathalie said. "But you're right, this is a better plan. Perhaps over school holidays you can see my work. Magic is in your blood, you'd take to it quickly."

Adrien hadn't considered the possibility of Nathalie missing him.

"We aren't telling Father," Adrien said. "Not until there's something to tell."

"That's your choice," she said. "I only want what's best for you."

Adrien sighed. "If you say so."

She had a long way to go to prove that to him.

/*****/

"I thought we agreed that this isn't the time to do this," Adrien whispered, standing over Marinette with his arms crossed. She was lying in the middle of her floor, having fallen down the stairs from her loft and not being strong enough to move herself any farther.

"I had to know," she said. "Things are happening and I want to help."

"You helped yesterday," Adrien said, reaching down to pick her up. He carried her to the chaise, settling next to her so she could curl her head into his chest to block out the light. "You got everyone around us to help, remembered that Felix and Bridgette could go instead of us, you helped me calm down-"

"No, I didn't," she said. "My mom did that."

"You were there, and hearing your voice helped," he said, brushing her hair away from her face.

"You flinched," she said. "I upset you."

"You didn't," he said. "I don't remember flinching, but I do remember your voice and you sitting next to me and calling Nathalie. You didn't have to... punish yourself with a three day headache over that."

"That's not why I did this," she said, turning her head to squint up at him. "I hate the feeling of missing something I should know. I rely on my mind to keep us safe, as Ladybug and as Marinette. The crises were over, I thought I had a few more days of just enjoying things before I had to do this, but then another crisis fell in our lap."

"We have one, shared lap?"

"Yes, right now, with the light from the window stabbing me in the eye, we have one collective lap. My point is, I couldn't put it off."

Adrien leaned down to kiss her, the gentlest kiss they had ever shared.

"Okay," he said. "I understand. You stay here, I'm going to cover the window and then bring you some lunch and we can watch a movie."

"A princess movie," Marinette said, putting a pillow over her face as Adrien stood.

"A princess movie," he agreed.

"There's something else we need to not put off," she said. "We need backup."

/*****/

"So, I'm in charge of training these two?" Rena asked, jerking her thumb over her shoulder to where Carapace was trying to spin his shield on his palm and Queen Bee was fixing her hair in the reflection of a shop window.

"I'll be here to help now, and Ladybug will help when she's back on her feet," Chat Noir said, "but for now, you're in charge."

"Nice. Do they know..." Rena trailed off.

"Nope, and we're keeping it that way for a while," Chat Noir said. "It'll be us three in on the identity secrets until they prove they can keep this to themselves."

Rena nodded. She cracked her knuckles and grinned.

"I can think of so many ways to do this. Training will be fun! For me."

"That's my girl," Chat said, fist bumping her. "LB sends her love and says not to go too hard on them."

"Hey, they don't have to face akumas," Rena said. "It's only fair they experience trial by fire somehow or other."

/*****/

It took almost a year.

In that time, Bridgette and Felix married. Adrien managed to sweet-talk his father into letting them take the jet to the wedding, and then sweet-talk Marinette's parents and the Gorilla into using it. They hadn't realized it would be a very small ceremony, under thirty people in attendance. One of their friends officiated and there was one maid of honor and one best man. Once they were sure they were coming, Adrien and Marinette were made a groomsman and bridesmaid. It was a lovely night.

"It's like seeing a slice of what our future could be," Adrien said while they danced.

"I've imagined so many futures for us," Marinette said. "One like this would be nice though."

In that time, Marinette and Adrien went through another year of school. He continued to tutor her in math, and she convinced him to drop a few after school activities to spend more time with her, Alya, and Nino. Adrien also started his part time job at the bakery and Tom declared him the fastest study he’d seen in the kitchen.

In that time, the five superheroes of Paris grew closer, and eventually Nino and Chloe were let in on the secret identities.

In that time, Adrien visited Nathalie three times, and while he didn't believe her that her motives were entirely selfless, he did start to believe she cared about him. Adrien spent New Years Eve and Day with Nathalie, watching her weave magic together, building it like a sand castle in her hotel room in Japan.

“This is the part you help with,” Nathalie said, motioning for Chat Noir to sit on the floor next to her. “Reach into the center of the spell with the hand not containing your miraculous and say the incantation I had you memorize. Focus on the concept of lost things.”

He did as she said, and the whole thing shrunk down to wrap around his hand like a glove. The warm color and icy sensation were at odds, but in the way dissonant notes fit into a piano piece.

“Excellent. Felix would be annoyed and jealous to see you do that on the first try. Now, slip it off your hand and place it in the box with her umbrella.”

The prop from her movie sat in a cardboard box. Adrien had asked why cardboard and been told it was because that was what she had found that was big enough to hold the umbrella.

“Good,” Nathalie said when he closed the top of the box. “We’ll do part two tomorrow. Now, detransform and put your hand on the top of the box.”

He did, and was overcome with memories of his mother. Making cupcakes for Gabriel’s birthday, yelling for her in the middle of the night after a nightmare, helping her pick out pictures for their Christmas cards, watching a movie on a rainy afternoon, hearing her and Gabriel fight.

“You can feel her, right?” Nathalie said.

“She’s actually out there somewhere,” Adrien said, astonished at how sure he was.

“She is. I don’t know more than that, but she is.”

They sat quietly, both close enough to the box to feel as if Emilie were almost there with them.

“I did it for her,” Nathalie said. “I’m doing this now for her. It was never about helping your father, or getting her back for you. It was always for her. Or, for me. I loved her, too.”

It was the first time he actually believed her.

Nearly a year of waiting ended with a phone call in the middle of the night.

"We found her," Nathalie said instead of a greeting. "We're airlifting her to the nearest hospital as soon as we can. But Adrien, she's responsive. I never expected... Can you get here? She's been asking about you. And about your father."

"Where are you?" Adrien asked. He threw a robe over his pajamas and went to knock on the Gorilla's bedroom door.

"Antarctica, if you'll believe it. I don't know when we'll be able to move her from the hospital, so I think it's best if you come to us."

"Okay, send me the details. We'll be there as soon as we can."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only one more chapter left! What happens? Where was Emilie? Why is Felix so bad at magic? Am I gonna keep writing LadyNoir July chapters with little to no LadyNoir? Who knows! I mean, I do. Mostly. Maybe. Tell me to get some sleep over at [cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com](https://cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com/).


	31. Forces (Promise/Sunrise)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emilie's return changes things.

Emilie Agreste was alive and well. Gabriel and Adrien Agreste were rushed to her side. Rumor had it, Adrien had been living with his former bodyguard and had limited contact with Gabriel. They were accompanied by Adrien's girlfriend, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, a budding designer. Emilie was found by Nathalie Sancoeur, Gabriel's former assistant, when Emilie escaped her kidnappers. She was being treated at a hospital in Argentina.

This was the story released to the public.

Emilie was alive and well. Gabriel, Adrien, the Gorilla, and Marinette went to meet her, Nathalie, and the Greylings. She was being treated in a hospital in Argentina. Emilie had not escaped her kidnappers, exactly.

"Emilie." Gabriel fell to his knees at her bedside, tears streaming down his face. "I tried so hard to find you," he said.

"I heard," she said, laying a hand on his head. "Nathalie told me everything you did."

Gabriel collapsed.

"Father?" Adrien started to panic. He couldn't get one parent back just to lose the other.

"He'll be fine," Emilie said. "A little trick I learned. It looks like someone else modified his memory before. A crude job, like using an ax to perform surgery. But no matter. When he wakes, he'll have no memory of being Hawkmoth, and he'll be incapable of discovering it again."

"Mom?"

"I learned a lot while I was away, dear."

/*****/

Gabriel was admitted through the emergency department and the Gorilla agreed to stay with him so Adrien could be with his mother.

"Tell me about everything I missed, dear," she said, holding out her hands and pulling Adrien to sit next to her on the bed when he came close enough for her to reach. "And introduce me to your friend here."

"This is Marinette, my girlfriend." He wasn't sure what else to say.

"Wonderful to meet you, Marinette," she said. "There's not a lot of room, but come sit with us."

Adrien kept trying to ask his mother where she had been, what had happened. She kept brushing him off and begging for more information about him and his life.

"Mom," Adrien said after showing her pictures of Alya and Nino, "I'm trying to be patient, I'm trying not to worry but I need to know something, anything, about what happened. Are you scared? Is that why you won't tell me?"

"Oh, no dear," she said. "There isn't much I fear. It's just a lot of nonsense that you don't need to worry about. I was gone, but now I'm back, and I love you so much." She pulled him into a hug, and he noted she was strong, much stronger than he expected for someone who had to be airlifted to a hospital.

A doctor came by and kicked them out a few minutes later, and they made their way to find the Gorilla and Gabriel. Nathalie was pacing the hall outside Gabriel's room.

"He just finished yelling at me," she said. "I didn't miss that. You'd think he'd be at least a little grateful, but I left him without a replacement when I 'disappeared'."

"Can you tell us more about finding her?" Adrien asked.

"First can you tell me what happened to your father? I step away to get coffee and come back to this?"

Marinette recounted Emilie's actions. "Could that really be possible? Or should we be worried she's..." Marinette searched her mind for the name of the correct mental health symptom to cover such a break from reality.

"I found her sitting in a little ice cave without a jacket in Antarctica," Nathalie said. "I wouldn't have believe it had Felix not been there, too."

"Are you telling them?" Bridgette was tugging Felix along behind her, rounding the corner towards the group. "Adrien, your mom's crazy powerful. The peacock can sense magic, did you know that?"

"What is going on?" Adrien asked.

"I have a theory," Nathalie said. "But let's go somewhere else to discuss it."

Nathalie, Felix, Bridgette, Marinette, and Adrien found their way to the cafeteria. Felix sulked over a cup of coffee from which Bridgette stole sips. Marinette was struck again with the sight of the two of them.

"You were more than eager to tell me your theory six or seven times on the way back from that frozen wasteland," Felix grumbled when Nathalie sat staring at her coffee cup in silence for a minute too long.

"I've known Emilie a very long time," Nathalie said. "She's always been magically powerful. She never had much interest in it, but she had the inborn talent. She wasn't very good because she didn't care and didn't practice, but she had potential."

"That's why you said it was in my blood?" Adrien asked.

Nathalie nodded. "She's had trouble in the past with groups and individuals approaching her to work for them as an amateur magician, even without training. My theory is that one group didn't take 'no' for an answer."

"Dear Nathalie, why didn't you ask me?"

Emilie sat at the table with them, clad in a hospital gown covered by a robe and still looking more regal than anyone in the building.

"Obviously you're going to worry anyway so I might as well tell you what happened.” Emilie said to Adrien. She paused. ”You didn’t worry like this before.” She smiled sadly, shook her head, then looked at the two couples. “You four are all miraculous holders, yes?"

"You know about the miraculous?" Adrien asked. "I mean, you mentioned Hawkmoth-"

"I've followed the news as best I could while I was gone. I'd know my son anywhere," Emilie said, lifting Adrien's hand and looking pointedly at his miraculous, "and he's dating such a nice young lady," she brushed Marinette's hair behind her ear with a glance at her earring. "And you two fit the descriptions of the new heroes in Germany. In fact, I think one of them shares a name with you, Greyling."

Bridgette, Marinette, and Adrien froze. Felix rolled his eyes.

"Get to the point. I'm still not warm from dragging you out of your little ice hut."

"Nathalie is mostly right. A group decided they needed my magical power. But I wouldn't call them anything so ordinary as magicians. No, they were... Forces."

Marinette looked around the table. Was she supposed to know what that meant?

"Anyway," Emilie said, brushing her hair back, "I was taken against my will, and never became powerful enough to escape on my own, but they were training me. I gained magical power that makes the miraculouses look like toys."

"I mean... yoyo, fan, trompo..." Bridgette said with a shrug.

"If Gabriel had succeeded and made his wish, nothing would have happened," she said. "The combined power of creation and destruction cannot rival the Forces."

"That's not true," Plagg grumbled from Adrien's shirt. "They'll tell you that, but last time we met, Tikki and I sent them running."

"You fought the lesser Forces, Plagg," Emilie said. "You know there are more than those you faced."

Plagg said nothing.

"Anyway, I guess when they saw that Nathalie here wasn't going to stop looking, they decided my training was complete enough." Emilie's hand fell on Nathalie's where it rested next to her coffee cup on the table. "Soon the real work begins."

On that cryptic note, Emilie bid the table goodbye and went to get food.

"Was she always like this?" Felix asked.

"Felix! You can't ask things like that!" Bridgette smacked his arm.

"She's always been calm like that," Adrien said slowly, "but I don't... The rest is new."

"I have to agree," Nathalie said. "She's different, but she's still Emilie."

/*****/

Bridgette and Felix headed home that afternoon. The Agrestes and company went home the following day when Emilie was discharged. Adrien felt more overwhelmed than he had thought possible.

"Where am I going to live?" Adrien whispered to Marinette when he snuck into her hotel room the night before they left. "Is she really okay? What is Nathalie's plan now? Do you think mom'll let me keep being Chat Noir?"

"Kitty," Marinette said, kissing his nose, "we'll be alright. If nothing else, we know your mom can take care of herself. And Nathalie will sort herself out in time. As for your father, we've kept him in line all this time, I don't think we need to worry any more than normal about him. We'll handle each thing as it comes."

The flight home was quiet until Gabriel decided all hell needed to break loose.

"Adrien, you will be moving back to the mansion and returning to the rules and activities we set forth. We will get you a new bodyguard. And you will have to be more responsible about your time spent with Miss Dupain-Cheng."

"He's not living at the mansion? Adrien, where have you been living?" Emilie asked.

"I've been with the Gorilla. He has custody of me," Adrien said.

"Oh, after..." Emilie shifted so Gabriel couldn't see and made a butterfly sign with her hands. "I suppose that makes sense. Nathalie, why didn't you take him in? Aren't you listed as his guardian if something goes wrong?"

"Nathalie was part of... that," Adrien said.

Emilie went silent. Her disappointment filled the jet like smoke.

"Were you?" Emilie asked.

"For you, yes," Nathalie said, not backing down.

Emilie looked on the verge of tears. "Well then." She turned to Gabriel. "Let's let him stay where he is until things settle down. We only want what's best for him, right?"

Gabriel and Emilie fought the rest of the ride home. Adrien found that escaping to the farthest chair from them and blasting music on his headphones did little to calm his shaking.

This was not what he had hoped for.

/*****/

Adrien was more grateful for the Gorilla with each passing day. Every visit he paid to his parents resulted in the two of them fighting. The staff he spoke to in the mansion said it wasn't just when he was here, they fought all the time. So a month later when Emilie asked for a divorce, no one was surprised.

"It's not just him," Emilie said over lunch with Adrien, Marinette, and the Gorilla. "I told you the real work starts soon. I have to help keep some of the Forces in check. It takes a human to look out for humans. Well, of course you know that," she said, reaching over to squeeze Adrien's hand. "Just look at all you and your team do." She reached for Marinette's hand with her free one. "With a leader like you? How could your team not?"

There still had been no explanation of what or who these forces were.

Two months later, paperwork finished and things packed away, Emilie came to say goodbye.

"You need to know that you don't need to worry about your father any more," Emilie said. "I'll be keeping an eye on him. He is not your responsibility. I can handle him, and you shouldn't have had to anyway."

"I don't mind," Adrien said. "It feels like I can do a little to make up for all he did by making sure he never does anything like that again."

"No," she said, taking a firm grip of his shoulders. "You be a kid for a little while. I've got this."

"Really?"

"Really." She sighed, cupping his face. "I missed you so much while I was gone, and I'll miss you while I'm working. I'll visit every holiday that I can, and some weekends, too. And you can always reach me, my phone will never leave my side."

Adrien hugged her, holding tight. This time he knew she was leaving before she went. This time he had a way to talk to her while she was gone. It wasn't the same. But it felt like it, just a little.

/*****/

**Ten Years Later**

"Fancy seeing you here."

The thump of boots was something Ladybug could identify in her sleep. She had, in fact. Carapace, Rena, and Chat had a competition to see which of them Ladybug could recognize from a dead sleep by the sound of them landing on a roof behind her. She got Chat right every time.

"Sit," Ladybug said, patting the shingles next to her. "I've been waiting for you."

"To think, after all this time, My Lady waits for me, expects and hopes for me to show up, as if a meager alley cat could brighten her day."

"Sit!" she said, reaching up to tug at his wrist. He sat and wrapped an arm around her waist.

"Hi," he said, leaning over to kiss her. "How was your day?"

"Bridgette is more stressful than her kids," she said, leaning on him hard. "I can't believe she's pregnant, in the middle of her second adoption, and still running circles around me."

"I still can't believe grouchy Felix is going to have four kids."

"Oh, if you think they're stopping there, you're vastly underestimating their desire for children."

“And you two worked out the details of your new joint boutique?”

“Yes, lots of boring paperwork.”

"But the Greyling clan was fun?"

"They were," she said. "How's Nino?"

"He needs to stop experimenting with stuff from the Grimoire unsupervised," Chat grumbled. "Only minor burns this time, but his left hand turned half purple, so that was interesting to explain to the doctor."

"Well, he always has you to look out for him."

"And answer his panicked calls asking for another ride to the hospital, like I'm not busy educating the next generation."

Ladybug hummed in agreement, leaning harder against Chat until she pushed him over on his back. She laid next to him, resting her folded hands on his chest and her chin on her hands.

"Hi," he said.

"Hi yourself."

"How's it going?"

"I had a question for you, if you don't mind."

"Anything, love."

"Hold on," she said, fumbling with the pocket of her suit. "Ha, got it." She held up a silver band, light reflecting off it in the setting sunlight. "Will you marry me?"

Chat laughed. He grabbed her in his arms and pulled her to his chest, rolling them over so she was beneath him and attacking her face with kisses.

"Of course," he said. "I'd like nothing more."

They lay there, on a random roof, giggling and kissing and exchanging "I love you"s until darkness had fully settled and Ladybug's yoyo started ringing.

"Hey!" Rena said, "can you two get your butts over to the park near the bakery? There's something going on, and I'd prefer a little help."

"Be there in five," Ladybug said.

They landed in the park and were met with the other three heroes.

"There's nothing here," Chat said. "You interrupted a lovely evening for nothing."

"Okay, whatever it was, it shifted to the old middle school," Carapace said. "I think we should detransform, go in as civilians first. They looked easily spooked, and I don't want innocents getting hit because of us."

"Fine," Ladybug said, dropping her transformation. "Lead the way."

"Surprise!"

Family and friends had gathered. A banner said, "Engaged!" in giant painted letters that could only be Nathaniel's handiwork. A cake bore their names, clearly Tom's work. Bridgette, Felix, and their three children were there, and Felix even cracked a smile in honor of the occasion. All their classmates from “the akumatization year” were grinning and cheering. The Gorilla and his son and his son's family (most of them just as big as the Gorilla) were putting the finishing touches on the food table. Almost everyone was there, and it was perfect.

"It's been an hour!" Marinette said, throwing her arms in the air. "How?"

"I'm friends with the jeweler who sold you that ring," Chloe said, nodding to Adrien's hand.

"And I saw you put the ring in your pocket when you were leaving tonight," Bridgette said.

"Plus you two are super predictable," Alya said, kissing Marinette's cheek. "So enjoy your surprise engagement party!"

"What if I'd said no?" Adrien asked.

Everyone laughed.

The night only got better when Adrien called for everyone's attention a few minutes later.

"So it turns out, everyone was expecting us to get engaged," Adrien started. "And apparently more than a few of you expected Marinette to be the one to ask." The mutters and laughter agreed with him. "But what none of you know, not even my dear Nino, is that I have been carrying this around for eight years." He pulled a ring out of his pocket and went down on one knee in front of Marinette. "Marinette Dupain-Cheng, you asked me to marry you tonight. Now I'm asking you the same. Will you do me the honor of marrying me?"

"Eight years?"

"It would have been even longer, but it took me a year and a half to decide on a ring."

"Get up here and kiss me," Marinette said.

They were just finishing cutting the cake when Emilie tried to slip into the room without being noticed.

"Mom!" Adrien said. "I thought you were on your way out of town!"

"I was until I heard about this," she said, kissing his cheek and then moving to hug Marinette. "Congratulations, you two. You were meant for each other."

"Thanks, Mom." He looked around. "Did Nathalie come with you?"

"No, she's at home, there are some things to be taken care of, but she sends her love." She looked around for a moment before lowering her voice. "Actually, I know it's not great timing, but I do need to speak to you two tonight. The Forces are gathering. Nathalie and I won't be able to hold them off much longer. It's a good thing you five have been training with your miraculouses for so long because we'll need every strong fighter and magic user we can get."

"Are you finally going to tell us what 'the Forces' are?" Marinette asked, skeptical.

"All that and more," Emilie said with a glint in her eye. She kissed them both on the cheek again and stepped away.

"Nothing stays quiet for long, huh, Bug?" Adrien asked, reaching for Marinette's hand.

"I'm happy so long as I have you," she said. She glanced around the room, at all their happy friends and family. "In fact, what do you say we sneak out for a quick patrol? Just of the neighborhood, nothing too far."

"I'd love to, My Lady," he said, bringing her hand with her new engagement ring up to his lips to kiss. "Everything's better with you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uuuuh, the end?
> 
> From the very bottom of my heart, thank you. You, each and every reader, everyone who has commented or bookmarked or gone and found me on [tumblr](https://cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com/), made this story the wild ride it's been. And now it's done! I'll be doing just a couple days of AU August, and probably all of GabeNath week next month, because I think at this point if I DON'T write and post things, I'll go a little crazy lol But I'll be around! Thanks for sticking it out, you wonderful creatures, you ;)
> 
> EDIT: Hi friends! So enbyred ([little-red-alchemist-of-doom](https://little-red-alchemist-of-doom.tumblr.com/) on tumblr) DREW Bridgette and Felix as Paon and Greyling!!! I'm including it here on the last chapter because I don't want to spoil anyone (see if you can spot why!). [Go check it out!](https://cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com/post/176970087803/little-red-alchemist-of-doom-so)


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